Biden and Fried approve Tampa Christian school's lunch money application after lawsuit

The Biden administration and Florida Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried approved the lunch money application for Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa just days after the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Christian school.

The school was being denied children's lunch funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National School Lunch Program, which Fried administers. The program benefitted 56 low-income children at the Christian school by providing them with free meals. 

"In a new change under Title IX, participating schools lose their ability to get school lunch funding unless they comply with the Biden administration’s radical expansion of “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity in all school operations, including restrooms, dress codes, hiring, and pronouns," the ADF wrote in a press release on Monday.

"Grant Park Christian Academy’s religious beliefs, including its understanding of the nature of the human person and marriage and family, preclude it from complying with this federal mandate to substitute gender identity for biological sex in any aspect of its activities, especially when it comes to males sharing restrooms with females," the legal organization stated.

On Friday, state and federal officials agreed to approve the religious school's application for school lunch funding for the 2022-2023 school year, which starts on August 10. The approval came nine days after the ADF filed the lawsuit.

The school was also granted a religious exemption request to the federal mandate that requires gender identity to be used instead of biological sex.

"It shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to get the government to respect religious freedom," ADF Legal Counsel Erica Steinmiller-Perdomo said.