By: Katlyn Champagne

History and Impact of the School Lunch Program

The school lunch program helps provide food for children while they are at school.

Depending on eligibility some families pay regular cost, some pay reduced cost, and some have free lunches.

The School Lunch Program not only assist public schools but also residential child cares, and nonprofit private schools

What is the School Lunch Program?

•The legislation had run into a problem with Men getting rejected for World War II service because of health problems. These health problems where cause of poor nutrition. So the assisted meal program was established to help provided healthy meals to children so that they would be healthy and encouraged to eat nutritious things.

Why did the School Lunch Program start?

How did it start?On June 4, 1946

President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act

Before this however the school lunch program was already in use.

The very first major program was started in a Boston High schools in 1894

1912- over forty cities started a school lunch program in their elementary schools

Up until the 1920’s children where still returning home to eat lunch, but that started to change because women began to get jobs out of the home and children where left to get their own lunches.

As the school lunch programs started taking off funding would come from individuals, and charitable organizations. Then the First Federal Aid came in 1932 and 1933 and granted loans to towns in southwestern Missouri to cover the cost of labor employed in preparing and serving school lunches.

History Outline

In 1937 according to the USDA “there were 3,839 schools receiving commodities for lunch programs serving 342,031 children daily. Two years later, the number of schools participating had grown to 14,075 and the number of children had risen to 892,259” (Gunderson, 2014).

In the 1940’s many schools where providing lunches and more and more children where eating them.

In 1946- 1947 The act was signed in and the School Lunch Program feed 7.1 million children meals within that year.

With all the children to feed and farmers who needed to sell there product the distribution program was designed which delivered dairy, pork, and wheat to school.

History Outline continued…….

•Meals where designed to provide nutrition and balance in the child's diet, and do it cheaply. • There where three meals to get:

Type A - A complete lunch.Type B -“Incomplete” lunch with smaller

portions and fewer items.Type C - 1/2 pint of milk.

About 10 years later Type B meals where eliminated

What did the lunches look like?

What does the School Lunch Program look like now in our schools?

• Monday thru Friday cooks are hard at work all over America in school kitchens to provide lunches for the children in their school.

• Yes, there is a lot of controversy about the nutrition aspect of these school lunches, but this program was started to be a benefit. As we move forward with more and more knowledge about what is good and what is bad for our bodies the school lunch program will continue to change too.

• According to the Food Research and Action Center “The National School Lunch Program provides school children with one-third or more of their Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for key nutrients. These lunches are required to provide no more than 30 percent of calories from fat and less than 10 percent from saturated fat” (Food Research and Action Center, 2010).

Recently

School Lunch Programs have been providing children with food at little to no cost for a long time. This program has helped each child know they will at least have that one meal. That is one meal they don’t have to worry about.

There are children in history and now that are struggling or did struggle with food supply in there house. This program lets them eat a meal and prepares them for a better day at school.

On a empty stomach it is hard to learn anything but when you have something to eat it fuels your brain and body to explore and learn some more .

The School Lunch Program has also provided lots of jobs over the years to cooks and chefs who prepare, cook, and serve the meals to the children.

What is the impact made by the School Lunch Program?

School Breakfast Program – started in 1966

Special Milk Program- started in 1968

Child and Adult Care Food Program – piloted in 1968 and was made permanent in 1975-1978

Also in 1998 the School Lunch Program expanded to serving snacks too. After school cares and special programs could get reimbursed for snacks served to students in their care.

The School Lunch Program inspired these great programs to;

References Food Research and Action Center. (2010). National school lunch program. Retrieved from http://frac.org/federal-foodnutrition-programs/national-school-lunch-program/

Gunderson, G. (2014, Jan 24). National school lunch program (nslp). Retrieved from http://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/history

Olver, L. (2014, March 07). Food timeline: School lunches. Retrieved from http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodschools.html

School Nutrition Association. (2000-2014). Program history & data. Retrieved from http://www.schoolnutrition.org/Content.aspx?id=1872