At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress approved a policy that resulted in schools providing free meals to all students, greater flexibility in how these meals were served, no more time-intensive paperwork for parents and caregivers, and most importantly, 4.3 billion more meals provided to kids over the last two summers.

But thanks to congressional ineptitude, the wildly successful program is about to end.

As Wilfred Chan wrote in a The Guardian article that we highlight below, “as rising prices hit families and school food programs alike, the program’s expiration will cause a cliff that some parents, cafeteria workers, and nutrition advocates say could cause a catastrophe.”

Read all about it in this week’s Lever Weekly, exclusively for supporting subscribers below.