The National

School Lunch
Program in
America
MC 380

11-26-14

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(1) Did any of the sources involveor summarize other studies that
involved-- quantitative analysis or languages other than English?
No, none of my sources used quantitative analysis or languages other than
English.
(2) If the answer to question #1 is yes, explain how you learned the
relevant quantitative analysis or languages and/or identify
specifically which sources were relevant and make a clear case why
any such use of quantitative analysis or of other languages was
incidental only. (If you cannot accurately provide such explanation,
then you should not be using such sources and should consequently
develop a different paper topic.) Descriptive statistics do not
constitute quantitative analysis.
Since no quantitative analysis or languages other than English, I stayed with
my topic I intended to research.
(3) What is the central program and policy problem the paper
examines and what is the papers central argument? Then answer in
one or two sentences.
The central program I have chosen to research is the National School Lunch
Program (NSLP) and how it functions today, and to determine whether recent
attempts to provide healthy foods in schools disrupts funding for the

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program. Since researching, I have found that Obamas Healthy, Hunger-Free

Kids Act has indeed impacted the number of schools applying for the NSLP.

Appendix
With my second major in Secondary Education, I wanted to write my
policy paper about a topic that intersects social policy with education. In one
assignment for a Teacher Education course, we had to look up the number of
students on subsidized school lunches in the school in which we observed.
Subsidized school lunches were a topic I knew little about, so it seemed like a
good topic to look into deeper.
I started out with a simple Google search of subsidized school lunch
and found a great deal of information written on the topic. These ranged
from two to three page summaries on the topic to recent newspaper articles
depicting the recent controversy over the new nutritional requirements in the
program. I quickly learned that it would be near impossible to discuss the
history of subsidized school lunches without addressing the nutritional
element, and vice versa.
Needing more scholarly sources, I then turned to a Google Scholar
search of subsidized school lunch and found a couple that worked well.
One was regarding nutritional information which looked valuable, but dealt a
great deal with quantitative analysis so I looked for other sources who

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discussed similar topics in a more straight forward fashion. Upon reading a

couple of the articles, I decided it would be best to refine my search to
National School Lunch Program which was effective in finding information
more suited to what I was looking for. These sources too ranged from the
USDAs official report on their program, to other more critical perspectives on
the NSLP.

The National School Lunch Program in America

The logic of the National School Lunch Program is simple: its difficult
for students to pay attention to school work when theyre starving in the
classroom. The NSLP aimed to correct that, providing substantial subsidies to
those children who come from households most unable to afford a school
lunch, let alone one with any nutritional value. While this matter of
nutritional value if often argued, the effectiveness of the NSLP is rarely
contested. Nonetheless, recent political conflicts have threated the program,
and in turn the millions of children who benefit.

History of NSLPThe federal government was never significantly involved in school

lunches until the 1936 when the Commodity Donation Program was
established. The early program was intended to prevent price-suppressing
crop surpluses by dishing out the excess crops to schools for feeding children

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already in need of meals (New American Foundation). Following World War II

the United States military got involved in the call for a federally regulated
subsidized school lunch program. At the dawn of the Cold War, General Lewis
B. Hershey went before the House Agricultural Committee, warning the
lawmakers that as many as 40 percent of rejected draftees had been turned
away owing to poor diets (Confessore 4). In the early days of the Act,
schools were required to meet certain guidelines set by the State educational
agency. These guidelines included serving lunches which met the minimum
nutritional requirements, that the school must operate the program on a nonprofit basis, and that proper records must be maintained and submitted to
the state agency as required (Gunderson 18).
Within the year both parties worked together to pass the National
School Lunch Act, intended to protect and help the children in the United
States to be healthy and grow. The program continued to grow throughout its
early years and the Department of Agriculture would send billions of dollars
to states and school districts to help cover the costs of school meals and
spend billions more to purchase surplus farm products for the schools
(Confessore 4). During Richard Nixons presidency the program was further
expanded, aimed particularly at helping the poorest children in the country.
Carter made minor cuts during his administration, though Regans were more
drastic, him arguing that the government ought not subsidize the meals of
children who could afford to pay.

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Hows it Work?In order to participate in the National School Lunch Program, local
school districts must first apply for permission from their state department of
education. After gaining state approval, all public and non-profit schools alike
in the district are then eligible to participate in the NSLP, but they must first
select an approved school food authority to run the program. The school
food authorities are independent, non-profit organizations responsible for
providing meals for school lunch programs and determining student eligibility
and enrollment (New American Foundation). Oftentimes, these school food
authorities provide services to multiple districts and individual schools.
In practice, the NSLP works as an entitlement, providing cash
reimbursements per meal so that schools can provide nutritious meals to
children at lunchtime. Therefore, all children attending schools which
participate in the program are entitled to some form of subsidy. As a part of
the National School Lunch Program, schools participating in NSLP also
receive agricultural commodities (unprocessed or partially processed foods)
as a supplement to the per-meal cash reimbursements, in amounts based on
the number of lunches they serve (FARC). These agricultural commodities
come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and are called entitlement
crops. In fiscal year 2012-2013, these USDA crops were valued at 23.25
cents for each meal served. In addition to these entitlement crops, schools
can also receive bonus USDA food products when available from surplus
agricultural stocks (USDA 2013).

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Whos included in the ProgramAll students in schools participating in the National School Lunch
Program are entitled to some level of subsidized school lunches, though the
level depends on the childrens parents income. For those children whose
families income falls below 130 percent of the US Department of Healths
annual income poverty line, lunch is completely free. Currently that annual
income poverty line is set at $23,850 for a family of four, and is updated
annually by the US Census. In addition, children who are members of
households receiving food stamp benefits or cash assistance through the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, as well as homeless,
runaway, and migrant children, also qualify for free meals (NAF).
There are some families making too much to qualify for completely
free lunches however, that still struggle to pay for the entire cost of their
childrens lunches. Therefore, those students with family incomes below 185
percent of the annual income poverty line are eligible to receive lunches at a
discounted rate. For these students, the school is unable to charge more
than 40 cents per meal for lunch, though the exact student contribution level
is set independently by the school food authority. For those students unable
to qualify for either the reduced or free lunches, there is an option to have
the lunches partially subsidized by 23 to 25 cents, though these lunches are
still considered to be paid lunches. In total, of the 31 million students who
received five billion meals during the 2013-14 school year, 62 percent were
free of charge, 8 percent were reduced price, and the other 30 percent were

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paid (NAF). It should be noted that of those receiving free lunches, racially
the numbers are fairly evenly divided between Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics,
ranging from 28 to 35 percent of the total respectively (USDA 2008).

How are the Students Enrolled?

Previous to 2010, there were only two ways for children to become
enrolled in the National School Lunch Program. The first way is for parents to
submit the information pertaining to their household incomes through an
application provided for by the school district. The second way students can
be enrolled is through a process known as direct certification. Under this
second method, school food authorities and state agencies determine a list
of families who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
benefits and then match that list with the names of students who belong to
the school the agency works for. In the last 6 years the program was
updated, and as of 2008-09, all school districts have been required to
directly certify students enrolled in the Food Stamp program which has
increased access to free and reduced price lunches and limited the potential
for error or over-enrollment by automatically enrolling students rather than
relying on parent applications (NAF).
In 2010 the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act introduced another path to
participation in the National School Lunch Program, called community
eligibility. Under the community eligibility provision, eligible schools are
those with 30 to 40 percent identified students, meaning those who are

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enrolled in Head Start, those whose families receive TANF benefits or other
forms of welfare, those who are homeless and those in foster care. Under the
community eligibility route, students do not have to apply for their free or
reduced lunches. As of the 2014-2015 school year, the percentage of meals
reimbursed is calculated as the number of identified students in the school,
multiplied by 1.6 (NAF).
Yet another way for students to receive free breakfasts and lunches is
through a program called Provision 2. Although technically any school can
apply for Provision 2, generally schools with high percentages of low-income
students (75 percent or more) are able to utilize this option (FARC). Like the
community eligibility option, under Provision 2, regardless of income all
students in the select schools are entitled to free meals. Unlike the other
routes which require yearly applications for the NSLP, under Provision 2
applications are only collected, at most, once every four years which reduces
paperwork and administrative costs. These cost savers help offset the price
of Prevision 2 as schools must pay the difference between the cost of
serving meals at no charge to all students and the federal reimbursement for
the meals (FARC).

FundingIn 2012, the National School Lunch Program cost around $11.6 billion.
This is compared to $70 million in 1947 and $3.2 billion in 1980 (USDA
2013). The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) which is an arm of the USDA is

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in charge of distributing school lunch grant funds to the individual states.

These grants are based on the number of meals of each type distributed
within the state in the previous fiscal year (free, reduced price, and paid
lunch, as well as milk, snacks, and breakfast) multiplied by the federally set
reimbursement rate for each type of meal (NAF). States wishing to receive
federal funding must agree to contribute matching funds equal to 30
percent of the federal funds they received in 1980 (NAF). This works out in
the states favor however, because since prices are stuck at the 1980 levels,
each states contributions are relatively very small compared to the federal
reimbursement levels. There is a stipulation for those states which might
have difficulty matching the federal governments funds. For those states
with per capita income below the national per capita income, the amount of
money that is required for the match is decreased according to the
percentage by which the states per capita is below that of the US average
(NAF).

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Local school food authorities are then paid by the states with the use of
the federal funds. These payments can be made on either a monthly or
quarterly schedule. Under the NSLP, the total amount of reimbursement a
school food authority receives is calculated by multiplying the number of
lunches of each type provided (free, reduced price, or paid) by the federally
set reimbursement rates (NAF). In those school districts with 60 percent or
more students whom qualify for the free or reduced lunch, an extra two cents
are allocated per meal to the school food authorities.

Problems and Concerns with the

ProgramWhere many of the concerns, and
indeed conflicts with the National
School Lunch Program come into play,
is when it comes to the nutritional
element of the lunches. In 2008, the USDA published a report analyzing the
current status and complaints against the NSLP. For one, they write that
critics of the program charge, the poor are no longer undernourished and
providing assistance in the form of food instead of income contributes to
obesity, either by encouraging overconsumption of some foods that are high
in fat and calories or by increasing overall food consumption beyond what is
necessary for growth and health (USDA 2008). In particular, the report
explains, because of the partnership with the USDA, the NSLP forces schools

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to incorporate fatty foods like high-fat meats and cheeses into the food
provided, especially since such foods are increasingly less in demand on the
open market.
There have since been a number of policy attempts, big and small, to
improve the nutritional quality of the foods provided in these subsidized
school lunches. In its own article on how best to get more American youth
healthy, the CDC wrote that it recommended the use of the USDA Team
Nutrition tool kit, developed with technical assistance from CDC, provides
guidance and ready-to-use resources designed to help schools implement a
comprehensive and consistent approach to promoting healthy eating among
students (CDC). Others like behavioral economists David R. Just and Brian
Wansink offer simpler techniques to help children make smarter decisions
when it comes to picking out what to eat for lunch. They write that simply
closing the lid on the freezer that contains ice cream can reduce the number
choosing ice cream from 30% to 14% (Just).
The greatest leap forward when it comes to the NSLP and nutrition is
without a doubt the Obama administrations Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,
though with it came a great deal of controversy. In an effort to move towards
healthier, fresh foods, the bill was seen as a threat to big food companies
whose main customers included school lunch programs. Things went from
bad to worse when the previously loose guidelines began to turn into specific
rules, rules which effectively targeted certain food interest groups, which in

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turn made a previously bipartisan partnership, turn sour. As New York Times
reporter Nicholas Confessore writes in his article on the showdown,
Republicans now attack the new rules as a nanny-state intrusion by the
finger-wagging first lady. Food companies, arguing that the new standards
are too severe, have spent millions of dollars lobbying to slow or change
them. Some students have voted with their forks, refusing to eat meals they
say taste terrible (Confessore 3).
These complaints go far beyond simple unhappiness with Obamas
program, and has had a real and measurable effect on the National School
Lunch Program. As a result of the changes, many of the wealthier school
districts are opting out of the NSLP partnership, wanting instead more
autonomy. Tracy Fox, president of Food, Nutrition and Policy Consultants
explains that most of the schools dropping out of the NSLP are in areas of
higher incomes, and therefore werent receiving much money for being part
of the program (Take Care Staff). Still tough, by the end of 2012, roughly
one million fewer kids were participating in the National School Lunch
program, the first decrease in more than two decades (Confessore 11). Thus
we see real evidence of the impact the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act has
had on the NSLP in America.

ConclusionAs this paper has shown, the National School Lunch Program has a long
and mostly favorable history in the United States. It is often considered to be

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highly efficient, extending to over 101,000 public and non-private schools,

and feeding over 31 million students in 2013 alone. Despite recent
controversy, the program remains one of the most important entitlements
that exists in America today.

Bibliography-

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"Background & Analysis." Background & Analysis. New American Foundation,

24 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://febp.newamerica.net/backgroundanalysis/federal-school-nutrition-programs>.
Centers for Disease Control. "Make a difference at your school." (2013).
Confessore, Nicholas. "How School Lunch Became the Latest Political
Battleground." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Oct. 2014. Web.
Gunderson, Gordon W. The national school lunch program: Background and
development. Nova Publishers, 2003.
Just, David R., and Brian Wansink. "Smarter lunchrooms: using behavioral
economics to improve meal selection." Choices 24.3 (2009): 1-7.
"National School Lunch Program Food Research & Action Center." National
School Lunch Program Comments. Food Research Action Center, 2010. Web.
23 Nov. 2014. <http://frac.org/federal-foodnutrition-programs/nationalschool-lunch-program/>.
"NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM." NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
(2013): n. pag. USDA, Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/NSLPFactSheet.pdf>.
Ralston, Katherine, et al. "The National School Lunch Program: Background,
Trends, and Issues. Economic Research Report Number 61." US Department
of Agriculture (2008).

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TAKE CARE STAFF. "Subsidized School Lunches -- a Matter of Finances, Taste

and Nutrition." WRVO Public Media. N.p., 7 Sept. 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
<http://wrvo.org/post/subsidized-school-lunches-matter-finances-taste-andnutrition>.