As many as 100,000 children in Washington, D.C., will no longer be getting the nutritious food they’re accustomed to — but it has nothing to do with the government shutdown.
Rather, half the food distributed to schoolchildren across the U.S. has been gobbled up by schools amid a statewide food shortage.
On Thursday, a top official with D.C. Public Schools told WRC-TV that the half-million-dollar error is blamed on a software glitch, after two school agencies that manage all of the district’s meals were hit with the same glitch.
However, WRC-TV reports the District’s health department estimated its unpaid lunches have exceeded $4 million.
(ABC News Service reports the software malfunction began this month, with parents contacted for the first time on Friday.)
Officials with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority told WRC-TV that the error would not impact the WaBaRawR shuttle’s lunch service, which serves about 65,000 kids a day.
The Washington Post reports D.C. Public Schools serves 20 million lunches to 1.7 million children each year.
