The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is one of several government agencies responsible for monitoring and maintaining the nation’s school lunch services. In 2024, the USDA supported a major program overhaul outlined by the Biden-Harris administration.
Schools serving lunch to students dates back to 1890. However, governmental agencies did not officially recognize or manage a lunch program until President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act in 1946. The act formalized the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), which remains operational. The NSLP provides school children with nutritionally balanced food options at low costs or for free. Several factors led to the enactment of the NSLP. For example, many American men failed to qualify for service during World War II due to diet-related health problems.
Two of the most significant modifications to NSLP came 20 years later when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. It introduced two key additions: the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and the Special Milk Program (SMP). President Johnson supported NSLP, saying, “Good nutrition is essential to good learning.” The Johnson administration signed off on the Summer Food Service Program for Children two years later. Later, it branched into the Child Care and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).
The SFSP underwent several adjustments between 1968 and 1975. It spawned additional food programs, including the Child Care Food Program, which became permanent in 1978. Renamed the Child and Adult Care Food Program, it extends coverage to child care centers, day care homes, homeless shelters, and select adult care centers.
In 1979, NSLP peaked at 27 million lunches daily. In the 1980s, a lack of funding and harsh federal regulations impacted child nutrition programs. By 1982, nearly 3,000 schools had dropped out of the program, a decline that continued until 1989. In recent decades, lawmakers have designed several pieces of legislation to improve food services at American schools, including the Health Meals for Americans Act of 1994 and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
By 2014, NSLP numbers had exceeded the 1979 peak, reaching about 31 million students. The USDA reported these figures two years after rolling out new criteria for healthier foods. In 2024, the USDA announced some of the most significant NSLP changes in decades. For the first time, the program will place limitations on added sugar. Changes will target breakfast items such as cereals and yogurts, the chief sources of added sugar.
These changes will begin in 2025 and should be in place by 2027. New added sugar limitations will also apply to flavored milk. Approximately 90 percent of school milk processors have already agreed to the new regulations. Maintaining milk integrity is key to a nutritious school meal program since it provides essential nutrients such as calcium, potassium, and vitamin D. Further NSLP standards will address sodium and whole grains, though not to the same extent.
The latest NSLP changes will also address particular food preferences. For example, schools will have increased access to locally grown, raised, and caught agricultural products beginning with the Fall 2025 school year, while protein-rich breakfast foods, including tofu, will arrive in Fall 2024.
