The National School Lunch Program

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The National School Lunch Program is a federally funded meal program operating in over 100,000 public. It provides nutritionally balanced, low‐cost or free lunches to more than 31 million children each school day in 2012 based on the child's household income (USDA). The program is managed by the Food and Nutrition Service at the Federal level and by a State education agency at the state level. We will be looking at the statistics of the National Lunch Program for five local schools, and compare the number of students enrolled in the districts and the percentage that are receiving free or discounted meals at school. Additionally, the requirements to be eligible to participate in the program, as well as the reimbursement the school districts would receive for their participation.
Thus, school districts that choose to take part in the lunch program get cash subsidies and USDA foods from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for each meal they serve. In order to receive the subsidies, schools must serve lunches that meet Federal requirements, be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and they must offer free or reduced price lunches to eligible children (USDA). The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act included several requirements aimed at improving the quality of school lunch for children in the U.S. One important requirement called for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue new school meal nutrition standards that are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
In January 2012, USDA issued the new standards which increased the amount of fruits and vegetables served, stresses whole grain-rich foods, requires only lower fat and nonfat milk, limits calories, and reduces saturated fat and sodium. These...

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...income family’s that might not be able to provide nutritious healthy meals at home or meals in general due to their family’s financial situation.

Works Cited

United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. “National School Lunch Program (NSLP).” Web. 31 Oct 2013. http://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/national-school-lunch-program

FRAC Food Research and Action Center. “National School Lunch Program.” Web. 31 Oct 2013. http://frac.org/federal-foodnutrition-programs/national-school-lunch-program/

ElementarySchools.org. 2013. Web. 25 Oct 2013. http://elementaryschools.org/schools/37423/charles-f-johnson-jr-elementary-school.html

High-Schools.com. 2013. Web. 25 Oct 2013. http://high-schools.com/schools/17780/union-endicott-high-school.html

Public School Review. 2013. Web. 26 Oct 2013. http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/54611

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