Leadership Matters August 2013 issue.pub

Federal school breakfast and lunch programs: Do they really benefit districts?

By Dr. Bill Phillips IASA Field Services Director

I recently noticed an article about the Catlin School District leaving the federal school lunch program . Some many years ago, when I was superintendent of Gardner-South Wilmington High School, that district left the school lunch program. Since this is such an unusual occurrence, I thought that I would discuss their rationale and some facts about the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Superintendent Gary Lewis of Catlin felt that some students were “going away hungry” due to dietary restrictions placed upon school districts participating in the NSLP. Some of the concerns included the facts that nutrition guidelines have become overly restrictive, there were new calorie limits placed on school districts, and, most importantly, kids seemed to be leaving the lunch still hungry. Having duplicated this removal from the NSLP in the late 1970s, I can concur with Superintendent Lewis’ analysis of the issue. Currently, it appears that most districts feel safe within the environment and regulations of NSLP, and this unusual solution should bear some observation. Here are some salient facts about NSLP: The National School Lunch Act was granted and received permanent status in 1946, and from this legislation came the NSLP. The NSLP is a federal and state reimbursement program that provides cash reimbursements per meal to schools as an entitlement to provide nutritious meals to children. All NSLP sponsors are required to offer free and reduced-price lunches that meet federal requirements. Any public school, intermediate unit, charter school, area vocational technical or career technology school, public child care institution, and tax-exempt non-public school, or residential child care institution can apply to be an NSLP sponsor. All eligible schools can participate and all children attending those schools can participate if eligible. Schools participating in NSLP also receive agricultural commodities (unprocessed or partially processed foods) as a supplement to the per-meal cash reimbursements, in amounts based on the number of lunches they serve.

Congress created the NSLP after an investigation into the health of young men rejected in the World War II draft showed a connection between physical deficiencies and childhood malnutrition. In response, Congress enacted the 1946 National School Lunch Act as a “measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children.” The NSLP provided nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to more than 31 million children in 2011. The School Breakfast Program (SBP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It began as a pilot project in 1966, and was made permanent in 1975. The SBP is administered at the federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service. At the state level, the program is usually administered by state education agencies, which operate the program through agreements with local school food authorities (USDA, 2012). The SBP operates in the same way as the NSLP in that qualifying schools that elect to participate receive cash subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for each meal that they serve. The meals must meet federal, USDA guidelines and be offered at free or reduced prices. The eligibility requirements for the SBP and the NSLP are income-based. Students identified as living in poverty and students identified as homeless (Continued on page 24)

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