Congressional Research Service

School Meals and Other Child Nutrition Programs Congressional Research Service

The federal government has a long history of investing in programs for feeding children, starting with federal aid for school lunch programs in the 1930s. Today, federal child nutrition programs support food served to children in schools and a variety of other institutional settings. Administered by the U. S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), child nutrition programs include the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), Seamless Summer Option (SSO), Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), and Special Milk Program (SMP). The child nutrition programs vary in terms of size and target populations. The largest programs are NSLP and SBP (the "school meals programs"), which subsidize meals for nearly 30 million children in approximately 95,000 elementary and secondary schools in a typical year. Other child nutrition programs serve fewer children. CACFP supports meals served to children in child care, day care, and afterschool settings; SFSP and SSO provide funding for summer meals; FFVP sponsors fruit and vegetable snacks in elementary schools; and SMP subsidizes milk in schools and institutions that do not participate in other child nutrition programs. In general, the largest subsidies are provided for free or reduced-price meals and snacks served to children in low-income households. Other child nutrition activities include the NSLP Afterschool Snack option, CACFP At-Risk Afterschool Meals option, Farm to School Grant Program, and Summer EBT demonstration. Federal funding for child nutrition programs and activities totals approximately $25 billion in FY2021, the majority of which is mandatory spending. Most child nutrition programs are considered "appropriated entitlements," meaning that their authorizing statutes establish a legal obligation to make payments, but that obligation is fulfilled through funding thati s provided in annual appropriations acts. Most of the funding is provided in the form of per-meal cash reimbursements that states distribute to schools and institutions. A smaller amount of federal funding is provided in the form of federally purchased commodity foods (USDA Foods) and cash for states' administrative expenses. The child nutrition programs are primarily governed by two statutes: the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 as amended. These laws were most recently reauthorized by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA, P. L. 111-296), which made several changes to the child nutrition programs. For example, the act created the Community Eligibility Provision, an option for eligible schools to provide free meals to all students. It also required USDA to update nutrition standards in the school meals programs and CACFP within a certain timeframe. Certain provisions of the HHFKA expired at the end of FY2015. These expirations have had a minimal impact on program operations, which continue with annual appropriations.