SHUTDOWN DAY 31: Schools worry they won't be able to feed kids; White House thinks GDP growth could fall another 0.13 points this week

Tovin Lapan/Hechinger Report

A number of school districts have warned that children's lunches are at risk if the government shutdown continues.

• Schools are worried about the future of children's lunches if the government shutdown continues.
• At least one school district has already reduced children's lunches, removing bottled water and juice, and reducing the fruit and vegetables they give children in a bid to "conserve food and funding."
• Other school districts said they are concerned about the future, with no clear end to the shutdown in sight.
• "It's so frustrating and saddening. We just want to be able to feed kids," the food director of a school district in Kansas said.
• The White House told INSIDER that it expects the shutdown to deduct 0.13 percentage points from quarterly economic growth for every week the government stays closed.

Schools are worried about feeding children school lunches as the record partial government shutdown continues, with at least one school district already reducing children's lunches as it fears running out of food.

This was necessary to "conserve food and funding" due to the shutdown, now in a record 31st day, it said in a Facebook post.

Xinhua/Wang Ying via Getty Images

The partial government shutdown is in its 31st day. A protester in New York demanding an end to the shutdown on January 15.

"Starting the week of January 21, minimum level means: one main dish, bread, two vegetables, one fruit and milk," it said.

"No fresh produce will be included, except at elementary schools as part of the Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program," referring to the federally-assisted program that gives free fresh fruit and vegetables to elementary schools. This program will be decreased to two days each week."

"No bottled drinks (water and juice) will be available after the current inventory in stock is used. No ice cream will be available," the school system added.

<"We hope that normal lunch menus can be resumed as soon as possible once the shutdown has ended."

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A school system in North Carolina has started cutting fresh fruit and vegetables, water, and juice due to the shutdown. Here, a high school lunch.

Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tweeted on Friday that "child nutrition programs are funded quarterly and are fully funded through the end of March."

But with President Donald Trump claiming that the shutdown could go on for "months or even years," school districts across the country say they are worried about feeding children into the future.<

Here's what they are saying:

• The federal Child Nutrition program "may be in danger if the government shutdown continues," the Bethel School District in Washington state said.
• New York's Newburgh Enlarged City school district is prioritizing making sure that children get fruit and vegetables, and said it may have to avoid purchasing other equipment to achieve this.
• Kansas' Prairie Hills school district does not know how it will feed children if the shutdown continues past March, its food service director said.>
• "I really don't know how we'll be able to continue feeding them without the meal reimbursements we get from the federal government, and I don't know many other school food programs that would be able to either," Brook Brubeck told Politico. "It's so frustrating and saddening. We just want to be able to feed kids."
• said the city is making plans to keep school cafeterias open if the shutdown continues, saying that food for children is "the number one thing we're going to try to address" during the shutdown.
• Tennessee's Dyersburg City school district said it would "keep feeding kids" and they would not "see a difference" because it has enough funds in its own budget to make it to the end of the year if necessary.
• The Edenton-Chowan, Currituck County, and Camden school districts in North Carolina said they were not feeling any immediate impact from the shutdown and had not changed their menus for children, though Camden said it would watch the shutdown "closely."

Getty Images

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (left) and Trump. Perdue said on Friday that child nutrition programs are fully funded through the end of March. School districts are worried about feeding children after that.

The Child Nutrition Programs funded by the Agriculture Department include the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Special Milk Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Summer Food Service Program, and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

29.7 million students participate in the National School Lunch Program, and 22 million were signed up for free or reduced-price meals as of December, according to federal statistics cited by Politico.

telling parents that more and more children are qualifying for the programs as federal employees are furloughed and not receiving any paychecks.

Read more: Trump offered Democrats a limited immigration 'compromise' to end the shutdown. Democrats say it's a 'hostage taking.'

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

President Donald Trump, here at the White House on Saturday, said the shutdown could go on for "months or even years."

A White House official told INSIDER last week that the administration expects the shutdown to deduct 0.13 percentage points from quarterly economic growth for every week that the government is closed.

This estimate for how much the shutdown is expected to damage the economy is more than double what the White House originally thought.

The White House's original estimate did not take into account the knock-on effects of government contractors not getting paid, and instead only looked at the lost productivity from workers directly employed by the federal government.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

The federal shutdown is damaging the US economy. Here, federal air traffic controller union members protest in Washington, DC, on January 10.

An ongoing impasse with Democrats, secret service agents struggle without pay, and national parks suffer: Other effects of the shutdown

• Trump's fight with Congressional Democrats continued as Trump tore into Nancy Pelosi after Democrats rejected his proposed shutdown solution, where he offered Democrats a deal combining temporary protection for so-called "Dreamers" and other immigration proposals in exchange for funding for his border wall.
• Secret Service agents are struggling with no pay, and some say the financial worries could affect performance on the job.
• National parks are suffering as they face piles of trash and damaged trees.
• Cybersecurity experts say the shutdown is putting the US is at greater risk of attack. A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency spokesperson told Business Insider that the agency had ceased some "critical" protection operations.
• The White House canceled the US delegation's annual trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, "out of consideration" for the furloughed federal employees.
• An INSIDER poll found that most Americans would rather use the $5 billion Trump is demanding for the wall on other things, like education or healthcare.