School cafeterias, already on the brink of collapse, brace for end of COVID-era free meals

With COVID school meal policies set to expire, districts on the brink of collapse. School cafeterias, brace for end of COVID-era free meals

For some kids, it was the chocolate chip cookies. For others, the sloppy Joes. For Thresa Thomas, daydreams of lunch centered around coffee cake.

Thomas says she would hustle as soon as the bell rang. Since her Los Angeles school's lunch was first-come, first-serve, time was of the essence to ensure she'd get the fluffiest slice with the biggest hunk of brown sugar streusel. If Thomas was lucky, she says she'd get the lunch lady who'd let her pick out that slice, even if it was buried way in the back.

That's when Thomas realized her calling. "I wanted to be the lunch lady who makes [kids'] day," she told ABC News. For 14 years, Thomas has been living that dream at her old stomping grounds -- even on days when the Culver City, California, morning blurs in a frantic effort to get her famous orange chicken ready before the kids stampede into the cafeteria.

But amid the COVID-19 pandemic, that blur turned into a two-year delirium due to school staffing shortages and issue with securing supplies.