The Biden administration has announced new measures it says could help make buying and owning a home more affordable for hundreds of thousands of people.

The plan will cut mortgage insurance costs by 30% for buyers who take out Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgage loans, from 0.85% to 0.55%. The reduction could save 850,000 homebuyers and homeowners who have FHA loans an average of $800 this year, according to the Biden administration. 

The discount takes effect March 20.

Mortgage insurance is the additional expense that homebuyers have to pay if they put down less than 20% when buying a property. While the mortgage insurance attached to some home loans goes away after homeowners pay off a certain amount of their loan balance, the mortgage insurance tied to those FHA loans remains until the entire mortgage is paid off, unless the buyer put down at least 10% at the time of purchase.

Of course, homeowners can always refinance out of an FHA mortgage loan.

FHA mortgages are intended for low- and middle-income homebuyers, as they require lower down payments and allow for more flexibility on credit requirements than conventional mortgage loans. 

The announcement comes as housing prices remain unaffordable in many parts of the U.S. By the end of last year, the median home price had reached $467,700. Combined with rising interest rates and dwindling supply, the barriers to homeownership have only grown for the most financially vulnerable buyers.

“A home represents financial security, the opportunity to build wealth and equity that can help put your child through college, afford retirement, create intergenerational wealth within your family,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at an event in Bowie, Maryland, where the cost reductions were announced Wednesday. 

“That’s what all of this represents,” Harris said. “It is so much bigger than a piece of property.”

TD Bank Group announced Monday that it had agreed to a $1.21 billion settlement relating to its alleged role in a $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme involving disgraced Texas financier Allen Stanford.

Under the terms of the agreement, TD’s settlement will release it from all legal claims involving the scheme, which saw Stanford skim customers’ investments in supposedly high-yielding certificates of deposit held in an offshore account in Antigua to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Stanford’s scheme collapsed in 2009 during a federal investigation; in 2012, he was sentenced to 110 years in prison. TD was facing litigation accusing it of negligence while acting as a banking intermediary for Stanford.

Based in Toronto, TD continues to deny any liability or wrongdoing with respect the scheme, and as part of the settlement made no admission of guilt.

‘TD provided primarily correspondent banking services to Stanford International Bank Limited and maintains that it acted properly at all times,’ it said in a statement. ‘TD elected to settle the matter to avoid the distraction and uncertainty of continuing a long legal proceeding.’

TD also noted it had won a trial in Canada related to its alleged role in the Stanford fraud.

The receiver in the case, Ralph Janvey, has now recovered more than $2.7 billion for Stanford’s investors, Reuters reported.

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs into law a bill stripping Disney of its longtime self-governing status in the state, his new book reveals he warned the entertainment giant about its political activities.

In “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival,” DeSantis argues that former Disney CEO Bob Chapek ‘understood the risk that the company faced’ when it weighed in against DeSantis’ efforts to restrict teaching about sexuality and ‘gender ideology’ to Florida students from kindergarten to third grade.

But Chapek was facing pressure from, among others, his predecessor as CEO — and eventual successor — Robert Iger.

Iger, DeSantis notes, had already publicly come out against the bill. ‘Somehow,’ the Florida governor writes, Iger said the bill would “put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy.”

Guests walk past Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on Oct. 1, 2021.Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images file

Opponents have warned about the consequences of the bill, including Lilian Bowen, a bisexual actress who starred on ‘Andi Mack,’ Disney Channel’s first show to feature an LGBTQ character.

‘When you’re in a society constantly saying it’s wrong, I guess we hide from even our own selves,’ she tweeted.

DeSantis writes that Chapek ultimately called him directly as he weighed how the company should respond. While DeSantis did not want Disney to get involved, the governor writes, Chapek said he was facing unprecedented pressure to weigh in against the bill.

”We get pressured all the time,’ he (Chapek) told me. ‘But this time is different. I haven’t seen anything like this before,” DeSantis writes of his conversation with Chapek.

“Do not get involved with this legislation,” DeSantis says he responded. “You will end up putting yourself in an untenable position. People like me will say, ‘Gee, how come Disney has never said anything about China, where they make a fortune?’’

Where things stand now

Fast forward to Monday: DeSantis touted his victory on Twitter over what he called Disney’s ‘corporate kingdom’ as he signed into law a bill taking over the company’s special governing area. For decades, the area, known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, had let Disney make its own planning and zoning decisions. The company also had its own taxing and bonding authority.

Among those who will now oversee the district, now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, is Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder and former co-director of Moms for Liberty, a conservative activist group based in Florida that has helped turn school board meetings into political battlegrounds. Ziegler is also the wife of Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

As for Chapek, he stepped down as Disney CEO in November and was replaced by Iger, who now serves as interim chief executive.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company previously stated it was monitoring the legislation.

“Disney works under a number of different models and jurisdictions around the world, and regardless of the outcome, we remain committed to providing the highest quality experience for the millions of guests who visit each year,” a company spokesman said in early February.

Nissan is recalling at least 712,458 vehicles in its Rogue line over an issue with malfunctioning car keys that can inadvertently cause engines to shut off.

The recall affects “S” grade trim level Nissan Rogue Sport and Nissan Rogue vehicles equipped with jackknife keys, including the 2017-2022 Nissan Rogue Sport and the 2014-2020 Nissan Rogue.

As a result of the defective keys, a driver could inadvertently make contact with it and turn the vehicle off while driving, increasing the risk of a crash, Nissan said.

While Nissan prepares a remedy for the issue, it said registered owners would be notified to avoid attaching accessories to key fobs, and to use the key in the ‘nonfolding’ orientation. Dealers and rental fleets will also be instructed to insert a fastener into the key slot that will prevent the key from folding.  

According to Autoweek, the Rogue was the eighth-best selling used vehicle of 2022. It is also a top seller for Nissan overall.

Mortgage rates moved higher again last week, pushing buyers back to the sidelines just as the spring housing market is supposed to be heating up.

Mortgage applications to purchase a home dropped 6% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was 44% lower than the same week one year ago, and is now sitting at a 28-year low.

This as the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) increased to 6.71% from 6.62%, with points increasing to 0.77 from 0.75 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That is the highest rate since November of last year.

Mortgage rates have moved 50 basis points higher in just the past month. Last February, rates were in the 4% range.

“Data on inflation, employment, and economic activity have signaled that inflation may not be cooling as quickly as anticipated, which continues to put upward pressure on rates,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist.

Applications to refinance a home loan dropped 6% for the week and were 74% lower year over year.

“Refinance applications account for less than a third of all applications and remained more than 70% behind last year’s pace, as a majority of homeowners are already locked into lower rates,” added Kan.

Mortgage rates haven’t done much to start this week, but the trajectory now appears to be higher, after a brief respite in January. Lower rates to start the year caused a brief surge in homebuying, but mortgage demand from homebuyers this month would seem to indicate a very slow spring is ahead.

Delta Air Lines pilots on Wednesday approved a new contract that includes 34% raises over four years and other improvements as the industry faces a protracted shortage of aviators and strong travel demand.

Delta and the pilots’ union had reached a preliminary agreement in December. Wednesday’s ratification makes the Atlanta-based airline the first of the largest U.S. carriers to finalize a labor agreement with its 15,000 pilots since the pandemic began. 

United, American and Southwest pilots’ unions are still in negotiations though Delta’s deal could spur other agreements.

Delta’s pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association, said the contract won support from 78% of pilots.

The start of the Covid pandemic three years ago had delayed negotiations at major airlines. Travel demand has since rebounded, and airline executives have said pilot shortages have limited capacity growth, a factor that has kept airfares high.

“The pilots as a whole are striking when the iron is hot,” said Savanthi Syth, airline analyst at Raymond James. “They probably realize this is the best moment in time to get a deal done.”

In January, Delta said that even with “all expected labor cost increases” it expects a drop of up to 4% in nonfuel costs.

The new four-year contract includes 18% raises on date of signing, then 5% next year, 4% in 2025 and 4% in 2026.

Contract talks between airlines and labor unions have been fraught at times, as aviators seek higher pay and better schedules. Delta’s pilots last year voted in favor of allowing the union to authorize a strike when contract talks hadn’t yielded an agreement, and the airline’s pilots picketed several times.

Alaska Airlines pilots won raises in their latest labor deal last year. JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines, which are awaiting a government response to their planned merger, have each struck deals with their pilots recently.

Regional airlines, where the pilot shortage has been most severe, have also hiked pay recently to attract and retain pilots.

Ice cream lovers: If you like a little savory with your sweet, Baskin-Robbins has a new flavor coming your way.

The ice cream purveyor is debuting what it calls Chick’n & Waffles as its latest flavor of the month.

According to a news release, the flavor features ‘buttermilk waffle flavored ice cream with plenty of crispy chick’n* and waffle flavored bites drizzled in a decadent bourbon maple syrup flavored swirl.’

It doesn’t contain any actual chicken, the company said. But the inspiration is fowl-focused.

“At Baskin-Robbins, we pride ourselves on bringing innovative flavors to market, which is why when we saw the growing popularity of Chicken & Waffles on menus, we knew we had to create a bold flavor that would change the way our guests enjoy Chick’n & Waffles,” said Hannah Suits, director of brand marketing for Baskin-Robbins. “This flavor is a frozen twist on the iconic brunch dish, recreated in a deliciously deconstructed concept that is unique to our shops.”

To mark the occasion, Baskin-Robbins will give out free unlimited scoops of the flavor from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 7 at its 1225 1st Ave. Upper East Side location in New York City.

After briefly spiking amid pandemic lockdowns, the rate of U.S. homeownership has stabilized at approximately 66%, a solid increase from the post-Great-Recession-low of 63% reached in 2016.

Yet over the past decade, the gap in homeownership between Black and white Americans widened to a 10-year high, according to a news release Thursday from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

From 2011 to 2021, the most recent year cited by the association, the Black American homeownership rate increased less than half of one percentage point, from 43.6% to 44%. For white Americans, the rate climbed approximately 3 percentage points, from about 70% to 72.7%.

That 29% gap represents the largest racial homeownership disparity in 10 years — up from 26% in 2011.

“Unfortunately, the incredible affordability challenges of the last year have hit minority home buyers more than white buyers,” Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research, said in a statement. “Black buyers are more likely to be first-time buyers, who are more sensitive to changes in mortgage interest rates, while White buyers are more likely to have housing equity to rely on as they make a housing trade.”

Indeed, measures of affordability have reached their worst levels on record, the result of rising mortgage rates in recent months and surging home prices in the last few years. According to NAR, buyers now need to earn more than $100,000 per year if they want to purchase a median-priced home without going beyond their budget.

Black Americans also continued to have the highest denial rates for mortgage loans among all racial groups, according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data cited by NAR. Twenty percent of loan applicants who are Black get denied mortgages, compared with about 11% of white applicants. And 51% of loans for home improvement applied for by Black homeowners are denied.

When comparing the qualifying income to purchase the typical home with the median income of renter households, the National Association of Realtors estimates that while 17% of white renters can currently afford to buy a median-priced home — $467,700 at last measure — only 9% of Black renters nationwide can do the same.

Other racial groups have experienced more substantial gains over the past decade. The rate of homeownership for Asian American households rose nearly 5 percentage points, to an all-time high of 62.8% in 2021. And the rate for Hispanic-American households increased by more than 4 percentage points over the decade, to 50.6%.

A prevailing reason for the underperformance of Black households in terms of homeownership is lower incomes — though it is unlikely the sole explanation. The median Black home-buying household had a median annual income of $80,000, compared with $85,000 for white households.

Meanwhile, 8% of Black homebuyers said they had experienced discrimination in a real estate transaction — the highest rate among racial groups.

“Even among successful home buyers, Black Americans have lower household incomes, which narrows the available pool of inventory they may be able to afford and makes their journey into homeownership even more difficult in this limited housing inventory environment,” Lautz said.

Even as experts say tax refunds are likely to be smaller this year compared with other pandemic years, nearly half of all Americans now say their tax refund will be critical to their household finances.

A new survey from Bankrate found that 43% of Americans say this year’s refund is ‘very important’ to their financial health, with another 32% saying it is ‘somewhat important.’

That 75% total compares with last year’s 67% who said the refund was important.

The higher measure comes as the expiration of emergency stimulus programs like the expanded child tax credit are expected to shrink the size of refunds that filers can expect this year. Indeed, through the week ending Feb. 17, tax refunds have averaged $3,140, compared with $3,536 last year.

But with inflation at multidecade highs and debt levels steadily climbing, Bankrate found high levels of anxiety associated with how far those tax refunds will ultimately go. Thirty-four percent of those surveyed said they are worried the money won’t make as big of an impact ‘due to inflation/rising costs,’ while another 19% expressed concerns about covering rising interest payments with them.

Compared to last year, more survey respondents, 28%, said they would use their refund to pay down debt. It was 23% last year. Another 26% said this year they would use their refund money to boost their savings, down from 32% last year.  

Despite the relative dependence on a tax refund, Bankrate senior industry analyst Ted Rossman said counting on that money as a key financial planning tool is generally unwise, even though that’s the reality for many households.

“You’re getting your money back, which you have lent to the government at 0 percent interest, throughout the past year,” Rossman said in a Bankrate news release.

“Remember that a tax refund isn’t free money,” Rossman said. “While some people prefer to receive a lump sum because they fear they would fritter away the bits and pieces throughout the year, it’s generally better to adjust your withholding, so you get more money from each paycheck and essentially break even at tax time.”

School cafeterias are in crisis.

Some school districts are serving more finger foods because they can’t always buy plastic utensils. One is using a federal voucher to subsidize the cheese on its pizzas. Another is agonizing over whether to cut staff to offset its grocery bills.

The reason: Feeding U.S. schoolchildren doesn’t pay in this economy.

Food providers that many of the nation’s public school students rely on for meals are increasingly charging more than administrators can afford, representatives for hundreds of districts and their food-buying groups across the country told NBC News. Their longtime contractors — an array of manufacturers, distributors and suppliers — are passing on higher costs for everything from milk to aluminum foil, raising prices at short notice, missing deliveries or shifting their businesses away from the K-12 market.

As a result, many administrators are weighing which costs to cut as they face ever fewer options to buy ever pricier food. Next week, hundreds of school nutrition professionals are heading to Washington, D.C., as the School Nutrition Association, a national advocacy group, lobbies for more help controlling cafeteria costs.

While inflation is inching down, food prices at primary and secondary schools were up more than 300% in January from the year before, federal data shows. That figure reflects the expiration of pandemic-era aid to schools, but it also includes economywide pressures that have driven up food, energy, labor and delivery costs over the past year for businesses and consumers alike.

Anji Branch, the president of Idaho’s School Nutrition Association, said that “substitutions, cancellations, delays” represent “the new normal for us,” and she’s not alone.

The ‘force majeure’ flood

Paula De Lucca, the nutrition director for Wake County Public Schools in North Carolina, used to receive a “force majeure” letter from food contractors about once a year on average.

But those notices — which warn of price hikes above a contractually agreed level due to factors outside a provider’s control — have already flagged increases for 200 of the roughly 700 products ordered by the district’s buying group for the current school year, she said. Force majeure price increases can come from food distributors or manufacturers of any size, passing along higher costs for everything from labor or fuel to raw materials that they incur from their own suppliers.

The North Carolina Procurement Alliance — the state-run consortium that represents Wake County and most other North Carolina districts, covering more than 1 million students — said the recent price hikes comprise 52 bid items from the group’s distributors and 148 from manufacturers it buys from directly.

“We’re very seriously concerned about next year and the coming years,” De Lucca said, adding that the district has little choice but to pay the higher prices. Since her district is reluctant to make sacrifices to students’ meals and has recently raised employees’ pay, painful staffing decisions are now on the table.

“We don’t want to reduce our quality. So the only other option, obviously, is positions that you have,” she said.

Leann Seelman, a consultant at the NCPA, said her hopes for price relief have dimmed.

“We met with manufacturers a couple weeks ago,” she said late last month, “and they say they are still seeing issues in the marketplace.”

Other school nutrition directors are also reporting more frequent price hikes this year, many of them steeper than usual. Officials said the increases can range from a few percentage points above an item’s contracted price to 150% or more, affecting everything from chicken and yogurt to plasticware.

One force majeure letter seen by NBC News warned of a nearly 300% increase in liquid whole eggs — used in dishes like omelets and French toast — last July. Another letter announced increases of between 12% and 20% for foil-based items this fall, including aluminum wrap and serving pans.

Unlike restaurants and grocers, schools have little ability to pass along higher costs to those they serve. Many families already can’t afford school lunch. Households can apply for free or reduced-price meals, but not all meet the narrow income guidelines to qualify, which often leaves districts picking up the tab.

In a November survey conducted by the School Nutrition Association, nearly 850 of about 1,200 school systems reported shouldering meal debt, with the median of $5,164 per district up from $3,400 pre-pandemic. While some meal debt among the nation’s more than 13,000 school districts can be rolled over into the next year or written off as an operating expense, much of it will need to be paid off by the end of this school year, administrators and policy experts said.

Many food expenses for schools participating in the National School Lunch Program have long been subsidized by reimbursements from the U.S. Agriculture Department. Extra lifelines in recent years, such as a universal free meal program that expired at the end of last school year, and other pandemic aid, also helped cover costs temporarily.

But those are winding down, and Kathryn Fenner, who follows the K-12 market for the food-service consultancy Technomic, says current USDA reimbursement rates lag well behind schools’ needs.

“Food service operators are more challenged than they’ve ever been, K-12 in particular,” Fenner said. “It’s never been an easy job, but the pandemic made it that much harder.”

A USDA spokesperson said the agency encourages schools to apply for “community eligibility,” which means that if enough students apply and qualify for free or reduced meals, their whole district can be provided with free breakfast and lunch.

Reimbursement rates are adjusted annually to reflect the consumer price index’s “food away from home” category, which was up 8.2% this January from the year before. Raising reimbursement rates beyond the CPI adjustments would require Congress to expand the USDA’s funding powers, the spokesperson said.

A ‘less strategic’ market

The food service industry is dominated by a handful of large companies. Just three — Sysco, Performance Food Group and US Foods — captured nearly 40% of all distributor sales as of 2021, up from about 30% in 2018, according to Technomic.

Among the 50 biggest broadline distributors that supply large quantities of food to institutions from hospitals and catering groups to universities and public schools, those same three companies accounted for 67% of sales, Technomic found. The food service industry hasn’t grown much in the last few years largely because of the pandemic, but Sysco, Performance and US Foods have increased their collective market share in part through acquisitions, Fenner said.

For major food service companies, the K-12 market is chump change.

Faced with strict regulations around what they can serve, budgets tied to taxpayer funding and limited scale (even a consortium of dozens of districts lacks the buying power of a massive hospital system), K-12 schools aren’t the most lucrative customers. According to Datassential, a food and beverage research company, they account for just 4% of operator purchasing.

In May 2021, US Foods CEO Pietro Satriano told investors that K-12 is among the “segments which are less strategic to us.” On a February 2022 earnings call, CFO Dirk Locascio said that executives “expect to grow below the market there” and cited “added complexity” among the reasons K-12 customers “tend to not be as profitable.”

US Foods didn’t comment on its strategic outlook for the school market. “We support many K-12 accounts across the United States and take our commitments seriously,” a spokesperson said. “As with all customers, we may evaluate new and existing relationships based on the strategic needs of the market.”

Sysco didn’t comment on its K-12 business. Performance Food Group didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Many school officials say there have never been so few food providers that want their business. Some administrators say contractors have been dropping service to entire regions. Others are getting only one bid when they used to get a handful. A few are receiving none at all.

In July 2021, Florida’s largest buying group, representing over 600 schools, was alerted that US Foods was terminating a contract set to last through 2024 in just 90 days, ending a nearly 20-year relationship.

After scrambling for new bidders, the Power Buying Group entered an emergency contract with Sysco, featuring delivery fees 250% as high as it paid previously, said Rae Hollenbeck, the group’s executive director. Federal pandemic aid helped cover those costs, but that funding and the emergency contract expire at the end of this school year.

“We’re biting our fingernails hoping that we’ll get a distributor that will service our group,” Hollenbeck said.

A US Foods spokesperson said, “In the event we do decide to exit a customer relationship, we honor our contractual obligations and work diligently to ensure a smooth transition for the customer.” Sysco didn’t respond to requests for comment on the emergency contract.

In Pennsylvania, a buying group representing 60 school districts said it received a bid from US Foods for the current school year with prices up 35% from its prior contract. Over the past year, the group has received hundreds of price hike notices citing inflation, said Kristan Delle, the food services director at Upper Dublin School District and a leader of the buying group.

“In our role as a food service distributor, we have been working closely with our customers to help navigate increased food costs by offering cost-appropriate alternatives,” a US Foods spokesperson said, adding, “We take our contractual obligations very seriously.”

Branch, of the Idaho school nutrition group, said she’s spent hours hunting for off-bid sources or local suppliers that can meet USDA requirements. Several Idaho school systems are moving to six-month bid cycles because providers can’t secure prices for a full school year, she said. Many items Branch’s district agreed to buy last June have already become unavailable or prohibitively expensive, she said.

Fresh snack boxes at a Missouri school. Some districts are serving more finger foods to avoid having to provide utensils.Courtesy Lori Danella

Schools also said their food contractors are getting less reliable. A nationwide truck driver shortage has contributed to inconsistent delivery times, with a few districts saying they now pay staff overtime to wait for food trucks late into the evening. Some deliveries never show up, officials said.

The problems have pushed some schools to ink deals with local grocery chains, whose prices tend to be higher.

Lori McCoy, director of food services at Colonial School District, which belongs to the same buying group as Delle, said she has been working with Giant Supermarkets to get food into her suburban Philadelphia cafeterias after US Foods’ deliveries became inconsistent.

Although many districts contract with specialty distributors and secondary suppliers, it’s less common for schools to rely on off-bid sources for their cafeterias. McCoy said it’s the first time she’s had to work with a supplementary source to get food on the fly.

Since many regional grocers don’t carry some of the USDA-approved products schools are required to serve, like certain whole-grain foods, McCoy said she’s often stuck with whatever she can get. The USDA has loosened some rules in light of supply chain issues and inflation, but many of those criteria are expected to come back into force next school year and more guidelines have been proposed.

“I guess I’m not supposed to say I serve [unapproved ingredients] anyway, but if it comes down to that and not feeding our kids, I mean, we have to do something,” McCoy said. “We are trying everything we can to meet the regulation, but at this point there are challenges beyond our control that are making it really difficult for us to do so.”

US Foods said it works with customers “to offer alternative products to meet their immediate needs” in case of supply disruptions.

Filling the gap

Some schools have found creative, if often imperfect, solutions.

Lori Danella, the nutrition director at Lee’s Summit School District, says her district was one of very few in the Kansas City metro area that wasn’t dropped by their distributors in recent years.

She had to take chicken wings off the menu after prices tripled earlier this school year, but she’s managed to keep serving “Big Daddy’s Pizza.” Its survival is thanks to the federal Foods in Schools program — which districts can use to order USDA-purchased commodities in bulk to be sent to a processing company — that helps pay for the cheese on top of the popular Schwan’s brand pies.

A Kansas City-area school subsidizes the cost of the pizza it serves through a federal voucher program.Courtesy Lori Danella

It isn’t just food that’s gotten costlier and harder to source. Wake County School District bought silverware because it had trouble getting plastic utensils during the pandemic, De Lucca said. While that shortage has eased, it has meant short-staffed cafeteria workers sometimes hand-washing “a thousand forks a day” because they don’t have a dishwasher, she said.

Some districts have begun serving more finger foods to avoid that problem, Technomic’s Fenner said.

In Indianapolis, Adelante Schools chose to start from scratch after suffering supply chain issues and price hikes. Managing Director of Operations Jordan Habayeb said he was worried about narrow, repetitive menus in his K-8 cafeterias after affordable USDA-approved options dwindled. He said Adelante is partnering next year with an area nonprofit to source fresh foods from local vendors. The idea, he said, will likely save money, too.

Longer-term fixes to reign in cafeteria costs would likely require broad policy action and more federal funding, said Crystal FitzSimons of the Food Research and Action Center, an advocacy group. Raising USDA reimbursement rates for the upcoming school year and reinstating universal free lunch as a permanent program would help, she said. Both are moves that the SNA also supports.

“It’s taken longer than I think anybody had expected for the school nutrition programs to recover,” FitzSimons said, adding that the process is far from over. “They still have not recovered from the impact of the pandemic.”