The National School Lunch Program

Food Stamp is a government-funded program in the United States. This is a program that helps people buy food for their families; in other words, it is a very important program to families living in poverty. It is the nation’s most important program in the fight against hunger. This program was developed in the 1960’s; it is made to improve the nutrition level and food purchasing power of people with low-income. This program is offered to people who cannot afford to buy groceries for their families, regardless of age, color, sex or religion. Food Stamps can only be used to buy food items not hygiene or household items, and it’s offered only on a monthly basis.

SNAP is the foundation of nutrition assistance programs. This program provides over 47 million individuals in nearly 23 million low-income households. The eligibility is not restricted to certain groups of individuals, and because of this, SNAP serves a vast amount of families with children, elderly people, and individuals with disabilities. Others eligible for SNAP include families with adults who work in low-wage jobs, unemployed workers, and those with a fixed income. The SNAP Program assists about 72 percent of people who live in households with children. Nearly 25 percent of households with seniors and individuals with disabilities, are also assisted (Rosenbaum, 2013).

Dallas Independent School District has implemented free school lunches to all students starting with the 2014 school year thru 2017. The national program is called “Community Eligibility Program,” it is part of the United States Department of Agriculture and is federally funded. In order to qualify for this program, school districts must have a high concentration of economically disadvantaged students. This no-cost program is being implemented in many communities across the United States such as Atlanta, Detroit, New York, Boston and now Dallas. With 159,000 students, Dallas is the largest district in Texas participating in this free lunch program. [S, Rabb. "Dallas ISD to Offer Free Meals to All Students."] According to Food Managements 2013 K-12 Power Players Listing Dallas is also the 14th largest district in the country receiving this federally funde d benefit. [Dallas ISD Gets Community Eligibility Status for School Meals." Food Management”]

The _____ Program enables eligible low-income participants to use a special debit card to purchase food at authorized stores.

The National School Lunch Program is an enormous federal program that has grown to become the second largest U.S. food and nutrition assistance program in both numbers of children served. In 2009, over 31 million children participated in the NSLP each school day at a cost of 9.3 billion to the Federal government. The SBP reached 11 million children at an additional cost of 2.4 billion. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers the program on the federal level and provides oversight of the states agencies that are responsible for the program, in Georgia, the department of education manages the statewide program. Ultimately, the success of the program resides with the local school district or each individual school food authority who implement the program to the students. The laws establishing the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program stated that schools had to run their nutrition programs profit free and set the monetary per meal rates to reimburse the individual school. Rates for school year 2009 were $2.72 for free lunches, $2.32 for reduced cost lunches and $.26 for paid lunches. Today, almost half of all lunches served are provided free to students, with an additional 10 percent provided at reduced prices. Although schools are not required to offer NSLP meals, 94 percent of schools, both public and private, choose to participate in the program. Little

“Schools that choose to take part in the lunch program get cash subsidies and donated commodities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for each meal they serve in return, they must serve lunches that meet Federal requirements, and they must offer free or reduced price lunches to eligible children.”("National school lunch," 2011) The school and government have a responsibility to make sure the students receiving these reduced of free lunches have access to a meal that is healthy and nutritious because this meal is their only option for lunch during the school day.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was passed in order to reauthorize child nutrition programs. It provides funding and sets policy for nutrition programs such as the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Each local agency that participates in the National School Lunch Program or other federal child nutrition program is required by law to establish a local school wellness policy for all schools under its jurisdiction.

Money is money but if you’re living in an apartment and rent costs you $400.00 a month, you aren’t going to have enough money. If you get food stamps then you’re getting free money from the state for food. Most people get food stamps because they don’t have a job. You can only get food stamps up to the day you get a job that pays you just enough money to pay for rent and food. “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is the nation's most important anti-hunger program.” In order to get food stamps you have to meet the standards. “Households have to meet income tests unless all members are receiving TANF, SSI, or in some places general assistance. Most households must meet both the gross and net income tests, but a household with an elderly person or a person who is receiving certain types of disability payments only has to meet the net income test. Households, except those noted, that have income over the amounts listed below cannot get SNAP

Obesity is crucial in this country, in order for there to be a change we need to start serving healthy foods at schools. The First Lady Michelle Obama brought this healthy lunch concern to the educational system. California’s Department of Education Nutrition Services provides fresh fruit and vegetables to students as a supplement throughout the day. California’s schools have moved ahead to support Hunger-Free Kids policy. The local government regulates school districts including Los Angeles Unified School District to serve whole grains, fruits and vegetables versus foods high in calories. The Hunger-Free Kids policy allowed public schools to serve healthy lunches preventing obesity.

Pregnant women, post partum mothers, infants, and children up to the age of five years of age are all qualified participants. Income eligibility is state regulated which enables states to utilize a specified income cut off- indicating that a participant qualifies at185% of the Federal poverty income guideline (Richardson, Porter, Jones, 2004). According to the USDA and FNS income eligibility guidelines as per the 2016-2017 July 1- June 30 fiscal year, a family of four would meet the requirements by earning a total of $44,955 annually. From a medical perspective, participants must meet certain dietary conditions such as being underweight, overweight, anemic or have poor dietary intake; making them categorically nutritionally at risk. Currently, WIC serves approximately 8.9 million women, infants and children. According to the Center in Budget and Policy Priorities analysis (2012) children and infants make up over 75% of the aided population. Another validation of income eligibility for WIC is if the applicant(s) already receive pre-existing assistance. Several pre-existing services include SNAP; formerly known as food stamps, Medicaid health coverage and temporary cash assistance for families; the respective programs have income requirements therefore applicants are automatically considered income eligible for WIC (CBPP, 2015).

Background Info/Link to Thesis: School lunches have been a majorly debated cause of the tragic rate of obesity in kids and teens in America as 31 million children obtain lunch, and often breakfast and dinner, from their school cafeteria (“Child Nutrition”). Rules and regulations have been set by the National School Lunch Program, supported by Michelle Obama’s “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act,” in attempt to provide children, especially those in poverty, with healthy meals and to decrease the amount of overweight American children (“Child Nutrition”).

Every day, millions of school children around the world take advantage of school lunch programs. Depending on the financial situation of their families, some of these students may qualify to get these lunches for free. For the poorest children, this may be the only meal they get all day. For the rest of the children who are not living in poverty, these program allow them to purchase a hot meal during school at a very low price. While these school lunch programs help out countless students in many countries around the world, there are numerous problems associated with them. Often, standards for food preparation are not high enough. In countries like America, these lunches commonly lack the proper nutrition children need. Instead,

The free lunches for low-income children, summarized above, are just one fraction of this business. Within the National School Lunch Program, the school food operation also serves reduced-price lunches for moderate-income children and “paid” lunches for children from better-off families. The “paid” lunches are still federally subsidized to some extent as long as the meal meets the requirements of the federal school lunch program. Meanwhile, the school food service also sells a la carte items, trading off the loss of federal subsidy against the advantages of being able to sell more desirable or profitable products that would not qualify as a reimbursable meal. The National School Lunch Program in different school districts must compete against different things. The program will compete against vending machines, lunches brought from home, and nearby stores and restaurants for schools with an open-campus policy. All the food and beverage lines that compete with federal meal programs are grouped together as “competitive foods” (Agriculture and Applied Economics Association).

School lunch programs supplement children’s nutrition needs and without them many children would go hungry, be malnourished and lack the fuel needed to learn. Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, passed into law by President Barack Obama, reauthorized funding of the original Child Nutrition Act of 1966. Changes impacting not only the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs but also Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Summer Food Service Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Child and Adult Care Food Programs. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, for the first time in over 30 years, reformed school lunch and breakfast programs thereby improving nutrition for

State governments gives reward to schools that give free reduced lunch prices, for example one instance was in Wisconsin schools received $2,250 for each low-income child in kindergarten through 3rd grade using the NSLP. These schools are proof that this NSLP is cheaper and they get extra money for each meal.