The roughly $290 million that the U.S. government made available to help Puerto Rico schoolchildren amid a coronavirus lockdown has remained untouched for more than a month because local officials have not submitted a plan detailing how they intend to use the funds. The abrupt turnaround comes weeks after Puerto Rico’s Department of Education offloaded food to nonprofit organizations and a food bank to distribute to children. Normally, Puerto Rico’s 292,000 public school children receive breakfast, lunch and a snack. “Families are saying they’re not getting any donations when they call the food bank.”A federal board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances had demanded that education officials create a food distribution plan and criticized them for donating raw food to nonprofits. It’s a concern that Nelly Ayala, president of a Puerto Rico school cafeteria workers’ union, has raised, adding that they never demanded cafeterias be closed, only that employees be protected.

Source: ABC News April 30, 2020 01:30 UTC