Child Nutrition Act

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Child Nutrition Act" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation and footnoting. (November 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (CNA) is a United States federal law (act) signed on October 11, 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act was created as a result of the "years of cumulative successful experience under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to help meet the nutritional needs of children." The National School Lunch Program feeds 30.5 million children per day (as of 2007). NSLP was operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools in 2007.^[1] The Special Milk Program, functioning since 1954, was extended to June 30, 1970 and incorporated into the act. The act also provided Federal funding assistance towards non-food purchases for school equipment.

The act established the School Breakfast Program, a federally assisted meal program that provides low-cost or free breakfasts to children in public and non-profit schools as well as child care institutions. During the signing of the act, the president remarked that "good food is essential to good learning."