National School Lunch Act

Children eating a meal as part of the school lunch program at a classroom in Maryland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) deputy under secretary Janey Thornton is present for an event to launch International School Meals Day on March 8, 2013. The class is video conferencing to a school in Ayrshire, Scotland, with some of their children visible on the screens.

The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (79 P.L. 396, 60 Stat. 230) is a 1946 United States federal law that created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to provide low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools.[1] The program was established as a way to prop up food prices by absorbing farm surpluses, while at the same time providing food to school-age children.[2] It was named after Richard Russell Jr., signed into law by President Harry S. Truman in 1946,[3] and entered the federal government into schools' dietary programs on June 4, 1946.[1]

The majority of the support provided to schools participating in the program comes in the form of a cash reimbursement for each meal served. Schools are also entitled to receive commodity foods and additional commodities as they are available from surplus agricultural stocks. The National School Lunch Program serves 30.5 million children each day for $8.7 billion for the fiscal year 2007. Most participants are also eligible for food during the summer through the Summer Food Service Program.

  1. ^ a b "National School Lunch Act, 1946". Federal Education Policy History. February 19, 2011.
  2. ^ "The National School Lunch Program Background and Development". Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2008.
  3. ^ "Harry S. Truman: Statement by the President Upon Signing the National School Lunch Act". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved September 12, 2017.