California officials say they will continue to withhold funding from San Francisco until the city gets administration of its school lunch program straightened out, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The district has been forced to subsidize free and reduced price meals, to the tune of around $1.5 million, since the state stopped payment because of administrative violations found during a surprise inspection last year.
The violations included problems with how subsidized lunches were tabulated as well as a technical violation such as a failure to display an anti-discrimination poster in every cafeteria. The state says it will reimburse the funds paid by the district to cover the subsidy costs once the violations have been corrected and procedures are in place to ensure they don’t recur.
States administer the federal school meal subsidy program and are responsible for making sure districts follow the requirements. Districts can be cut off from reimbursement when violations are deemed serious enough and according to state officials this happens about once a school year in California.
