Maine

What happened to Maine’s summer meal programs post pandemic-era waivers • Maine Morning Star

Published

2 years ago

August 15, 2024

What happened to Maine’s summer meal programs post pandemic-era waivers • Maine Morning Star

Although Maine made school meals free for all students during the school year, providing access to free lunch and breakfast over the summer for school-aged children remains a challenge. That challenge is compounded by declining participation in summer meals, after the expiration of pandemic-era waivers brought back some barriers to access.

A new report from the national nonprofit, Food Research and Action Center, analyzed participation in summer meal programs for each state, including the number of sites, sponsors and total meals served, based on United States Department of Agriculture data.

Experts said Maine’s summer meal program does better than most states in reaching children who need meals, but there continue to be significant barriers to access, predominantly due to the federal policies governing these programs. According to this report, released this month, participation in summer meals decreased nationally in 2023 as most programs returned to normal operations.

In Maine, both sponsors and sites offering meals to school-aged children over the summer saw small declines from 2022 to 2023.

“Maine is, in general, doing better than most other states at trying to feed the kids in the state who need it,” said Justin Strasburger, executive director of Full Plates, Full Potential, a statewide nonprofit organization working to address food insecurity.

“But essentially, what you’re looking at is a very, very low bar that’s connected to a summer meals program that needs massive overhauls in terms of structure and approach.”

From 2020 to 2022, any school district, government agency or nonprofit organization could sponsor a summer meals program, and get reimbursed by the federal government through USDA’s Summer Food Service Program. Sponsors also weren’t required to adhere to typical USDA rules of how to run their sites (for example, parents could pick up grab-and-go meals at any site, as opposed to requiring students to eat on site.)

During those years, participation in summer meals surged nationwide because of the waivers and ease of access. At the same time, breakfast and lunch were also free for all students during the year.

After the pandemic, Maine became one of a handful of states to pass legislation making school meals free, which retained increased participation in breakfast and lunch during the regular school year statewide. However, the summer meals program returned to its regular policies, and participation declined.

The number of sponsors — who can be school districts, or nonprofit and community organizations — decreased from 116 to 106, and the number of sites where families can access free meals over the summer also dropped from 446 to 410, according to the FRAC report. The drop in the number of sites serving summer meals from 2021 — when pandemic-era waivers were still in place – to 2022 is much more stark, with almost a 50 percent drop from 861 sites in summer 2021.

“My guess is that most of those stopped because they had been sort of operating through loopholes created by the pandemic,” Strasburger said.

Meanwhile, according to Feeding America, 1 in 5 children face hunger in Maine.

Corresponding to this decline in sites and sponsors, the average daily participation numbers in summer meals as captured in the FRAC report declined sharply from 2021 to 2022, going from more than 22,000 to just over 14,000 and continued to drop in 2023. Last year’s average daily participation in summer meals was about 12,600.

Despite the decline in access, summer meals still serve a large number of students that qualify for free and reduced meals during the school year, especially compared with other states, according to the report. Over last summer, Maine served more than 400,000 summer meals, based on federal data.

Maine is ranked third in the country in terms of access to free summer meals according to a metric FRAC developed, comparing what percentage of students that qualify for free and reduced meals during the school year participate in summer meal programs. The state is somewhat successful because of the focus of state agencies, communities and sponsors on expanding access to summer meals, which isn’t the case in every state, according to Crystal FitzSimons, FRAC’s interim president.

“The way they operate the program, the amount of outreach they do, the quality of the meals that they serve, those things all contribute to high participation,” she said.

The Maine Department of Education did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the summer meals program.

How federal policies limit Maine’s summer meal program

The way the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program is designed creates challenges in allowing all students to access summer meals, Strasburger said.

To qualify as a summer meals site, at least 50 percent of the children in the geographic area or participating in summer meals have to be eligible for free or reduced-price school meals.

However, since far fewer families are filling out free and reduced price meal applications ever since the state introduced universal free meals throughout the school year, this calculation is complicated in Maine. The rural nature of the state also adds to the issue of eligibility of free meal sites, according to FitzSimons.

“Maine is a really hard state for summer food. It’s really rural, and it also doesn’t have the same kind of concentration of poverty that you might see in other rural states with higher rates of child poverty,” FitzSimons said.

“So it’s harder to qualify sites because there’s plenty of kids who come from low income households in Maine, but the concentration of poverty is not as high.”

One of FRAC’s recommendations in its 2024 report includes lowering the federal eligibility threshold to 40 percent, so more sites are able to offer summer meals.

The other issue is also a federal program requirement that students must eat meals on-site, which a majority of Maine’s summer meals sites still have to follow. Sponsors are not required to provide educational or enrichment activities in conjunction with on-site meals, but it is best practice to do so, according to FitzSimons.

“If you have a site that doesn’t have activity or enrichment, and you’re in a rural area,

it’s not going to make sense financially for the family to drive to a meal site for one meal for their child,” she said.

Some potential solutions to boost participation

This summer, due to an updated definition of rural areas, Maine was able to expand grab-and-go meal sites, although they still can’t operate in densely populated centers. USDA also released a map of all summer meal sites, including grab-and-go locations.

This year, Maine also introduced a grocery credit of $120 per child for all qualifying children to supplement summer meals. The program, called SUN bucks, is not new at the federal level, but many states have implemented it this school year, as a way to continue serving students meals after pandemic-era waivers expired, FitzSimons said.

Nearly 100,000 students were automatically enrolled in SUN bucks this summer because they qualify for other programs, such as SNAP or TANF, according to the Maine Department of Education website.

School-aged children can also qualify for the grocery credit if they are eligible for free and reduced meals during the school year.

The lack of accurate data in Maine

After Maine made all school meals free, the state has been struggling to accurately calculate how many students qualify for free and reduced meals, which is an important economic metric which then allows families to qualify for other benefits, including summer meals and grocery credits.

Since far fewer families are filling out free and reduced price meal applications ever since the state introduced universal free meals throughout the school year, the state department of education is working on alternative models to determine eligibility, for example, partnering with other state agencies to directly qualify students who are eligible for MaineCare.

Meanwhile, the FRAC report relies on free and reduced eligibility data to determine how well a state is doing with summer meals. According to the report, states should be reaching 40 students with summer meals for every 100 who received a school lunch during the 2022–2023 regular school year.

In 2023, the report said Maine reached 31.8 children with summer lunch for every 100 children, which is the third highest in the country. However, since this calculation used free and reduced lunch data, which is undercounted, the actual ratio may be lower.

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Maine

Watchdog criticizes Maine’s management of billions in Medicaid funding

Published

11 hours ago

March 26, 2026

Press Room

Watchdog criticizes Maine’s management of billions in Medicaid funding

BANGOR (BDN) — Maine’s Medicaid program lacks the proper controls to manage the billions of dollars going to health providers across the state, according to an audit released Thursday.

The findings from State Auditor Matt Dunlap’s office come amid a torrent of calls for increased scrutiny of how the state spends its MaineCare dollars and allegations of fraud, which has prompted another battle between President Donald Trump’s administration and Gov. Janet Mills.

Front and center in the growing debate is the embattled Portland health care provider Gateway Community Services, which is currently under investigation for potentially defrauding MaineCare largely through overinflated and underdocumented claims for interpreter services.

Dunlap’s report doesn’t mention either Gateway or interpreter services, but it does warn the state that inadequate monitoring of MaineCare could lead to federal regulators finding Maine out of compliance with its regulations. The state disputed that, but the watchdog’s words could add heat to a tense dispute between the Mills and Trump administrations.

Republicans stretching from top Medicaid regulator and former TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to the Maine Legislature are pressuring Mills on the issue during her heated U.S. Senate primary. Dunlap himself is running in a Democratic primary for Maine’s open 2nd Congressional District.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services paused MaineCare payments to Gateway in December while it investigated “credible allegations of fraud.” The pause came as a result of an audit by DHHS that included a review of 15,000 claims made by Gateway between March 2021 and December 2022.

Dunlap’s report said the Program Integrity Unit, MaineCare’s internal auditing arm, “may not provide adequate monitoring of all Medicaid services. Medicaid programs are jointly funded by states and the federal government, but administration of the programs are mostly left to states.

In recent months, Oz has taken an increasing interest in how Maine is overseeing its program. He sent a letter demanding detailed information regarding the state’s oversight of Medicaid spending, outlining concerns and mentioning a federal criminal case against two interpreters who are charged with defrauding the federal government by filing false tax returns.

The case alleges that two interpreters filed false tax documents with the federal government showing their companies were paid for interpreter services that didn’t happen. The third defendant in the case was an employee of the Lewiston-based Bright Future Healthier You, who died after she was charged.

Bright Future Healthier You was the largest biller of MaineCare for interpreting services in the last 10 years. The company itself has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The case is the first case the federal government has brought in Maine since a 2021 report by a federal investigator that outlined a suspicious billing pattern for interpreter services. The report highlighted that the billing patterns seemed especially prominent among providers working with Maine’s Somali community and indicated widespread fraud within the MaineCare system.

Gateway was the second-highest biller of interpreter services in the last 10 years and has been the subject of numerous fraud allegations dating back to May 2025, when The Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, first reported on claims from a former employee that Gateway falsified records.

Oz’s letter followed an audit performed by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services that found that Maine had made at least $45.6 million in improper Medicaid payments for support services for children with autism in 2023.

In November, widespread federal fraud prosecutions began in Minnesota, and with them, the employee, Chris Bernardini’s claims resurfaced in national conservative news outlets. Then, in December, U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury that identified Gateway, along with its founder Abdullahi Ali, as targets in a broader welfare fraud investigation.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services disagreed with Dunlap’s finding, saying it resulted from a “misunderstanding” of the federal regulations and how the department is structured. The department also said Dunlap’s findings discounted the regular ongoing checks the Program Integrity Unit undertakes on a more regular basis.

Dunlap said his office wasn’t persuaded by the department’s criticism and that the department “did not provide evidence of utilization control review procedures.”

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Maine

Potentially deadly virus for dogs is spiking in parts of Maine

Published

23 hours ago

March 26, 2026

Press Room

Potentially deadly virus for dogs is spiking in parts of Maine

WARREN, Maine (WWTW) – Dog owners are being urged to take steps to protect their pets from a potentially deadly virus.

The Midcoast Animal Emergency Clinic in Warren said on Tuesday that it is seeing a significant increase in canine parvovirus cases throughout the Midcoast and Augusta areas. Clinic staff also said they have been told about possible contamination at Quarry Hill Dog Park in Portland. Our media partner WMTW has reached out to city officials to learn more about the reported contamination there and mitigation efforts.

A spokesperson for the City of Augusta said there had been no formal notification from the state indicating a confirmed outbreak in the area, but that they had heard, anecdotally, of local cases.

The Kennebec Valley Humane Society did temporarily close in November due to an outbreak of parvo.

As of Wednesday, the city was not implementing any closures or restrictions at local dog parks, but officials were developing educational materials to help inform residents about canine parvovirus, including prevention and symptoms to watch for. These resources will be shared on the city’s website, social media channels, and posted at local dog parks.

What is canine parvovirus?

Animal experts say canine parvovirus (CPV, or parvo) is one of the most serious viruses that dogs and puppies can get. It typically causes severe illness in young and unvaccinated dogs. Parvo is spread by contact with contaminated feces. The virus can also live on surfaces that have been contaminated.

Parvo primarily affects the body’s rapidly dividing cells, meaning the intestinal tract and bone marrow are the most affected.

There is no specific cure for parvovirus in dogs and puppies, but there are treatments and vaccination is highly effective at preventing the virus when administered as directed by veterinarians.

In September of 2025, several animals in Houlton tested positive for the virus.

At the time, WMTW reported there had been an increase in cases in Maine since late 2024.

In the fall of 2025, the Eastern Maine Emergency Veterinary Clinic said dogs were being brought into their facility with the disease almost every week.

Puppies are most vulnerable to the virus, but older dogs that are unvaccinated and/or have compromised immune systems are also at risk.

If your dog is experiencing symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and extreme lethargy, you are asked to quarantine them from other dogs immediately and seek veterinary attention.

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Maine

Hidden Gem Maine Japanese Restaurant Serves Sushi, Appetizers on Huge Wooden Boats

Published

1 day ago

March 25, 2026

Press Room

Hidden Gem Maine Japanese Restaurant Serves Sushi, Appetizers on Huge Wooden Boats

How far would you be willing to travel for delicious food or a unique experience? What about both?

There’s a restaurant in Lincoln, Maine, called Ninja Japanese Steakhouse Express that you might want to consider visiting.

This small eatery specializes in express-style Japanese dining, boasting a 4.7/5 on Google, but it’s the visually mesmerizing and delicious super-sized sushi and appetizer platter boats that truly stand out.

Sushi Boat at Ninja Japanese Steakhouse Express in Lincoln, Maine

Sure, Ninja Japanese Steakhouse Express has a variety of foods to choose from when you’re feeling hungry, and there’s even some Chinese and Thai options as well.

But there’s something about ordering a meal that comes served up on a large wooden boat that sets the tone for a truly one-of-a-kind meal.

The Lincoln restaurant has that in both its sushi boat and Tokyo boat.

Let’s just say they are a feast for the eyes and mouth.

Looking at Ninja Japanese Steakhouse Express’ menu highlights its sushi boat options, either for one or two, at $86 or $99, respectively. So go big or go home, right?

When Did Ninja Japanese Steakhouse Express Open in Lincoln, Maine?

Ninja Japanese Steakhouse Express is a relatively new venture, having opened in 2024 in Lincoln.

Right from its grand debut, the restaurant noted on its Facebook page that from “savory Hibachi and Teriyaki to Bento boxes and Sushi, every dish is crafted with fresh ingredients and mouthwatering flavors that will have you coming back for more.”

Not only was there a positive response from the outset, but that excitement for the restaurant has continued today, especially with the incredibly fun boat service loaded with food.

Ninja Japanese Steakhouse Express

Here’s just a few recent reviews:

“Great food, friendly service fair prices! Worth the 70 mile round trip! Will be seeing us again!”

“The portions are very generous, the food was very tasty and all ingredients were fresh and well prepared.”

“The man that was there running things and cooking was SO friendly and helpful and hospitable. He kept bringing things out for us to try and talked to us and treated us like family.”

READ MORE: Hit Up All 5 Maine Restaurants Featured on Guy Fieri’s ‘Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives’ for the Ultimate Road Trip

At the end of the day, you could order a normal plate of sushi, or you could go all in and get a super boat of it. Sounds like a drive to this hidden gem location for a special meal seems like an adventure worth setting sail for.

Hungry for some sushi?

40 Maine Restaurants That are Worth a Long Drive to Get to

Thanks to our great listeners we were able to compile a list of many of Maine’s great restaurants, cafes, pubs and bakeries that are worth a long drive to get to.

These great spots can be found across the state and waiting for you to give them a try.

How many have you been to?

Gallery Credit: Chris Sedenka