The National School Lunch Program (NSLP)

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation’s second largest food and nutrition assistance program. It has benefited an enormous amount of children suffering from poverty or in households struggling to make ends meet. It has operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools and, “provided over 28 million low-cost or free lunches to children on a typical school day at a federal cost of $8 billion for the year”. (TNSLP) The main goal on the NSLP as identified by congress is to promote the overall health and well-being of our nations children. Questions throughout the years have been raised and questions whether or not
The first milestone and recognition for the National School Lunch Program was in 1853. Children’s aid opened its first industrial school for poor children and initiated the first free school lunch program in the United states. Serving food, “became an inducement to children from the slums to attend school” (Heimstra, 2002). This then became public attention as the realization of how many children actually suffer from hunger. This then arose conclusions as to why so many children suffered from weak physical and mental states, and those who were in poverty learned little to nothing in school.
The second occurrence was in 1894, when the Starr Center Association in
The Gordon Gunderson’s Milk Program. Milk, “is the only commodity that the program specifically requires schools to include in all reimbursable lunches, directly under school lunch legislations” (Ralston, 2008). Schools are also permitted to provide alternatives for milk such as calcium-fortified soymilk, for students suffering with allergies. In 2004, the USDA removed this requirement to offer whole milk and made continuous efforts to support the consumption of reduced-fat, low-fat, and skim