2018 Volume 76 Issue Supplement Pages S126-S132
Objective: The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program in the United States (US) that provides nutritionally balanced and free or low-cost lunches each school day to 30.4 million students, including more than 22 million low-income students. Since its inception in 1946, the program has undergone many modifications, including a shift in focus from addressing under- to over-nutrition. Most recently, the US Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to help address hunger and obesity among the nation's children. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the NSLP.
Methods: This paper is based on a review of relevant technical documents, peer-reviewed literature and grey literature. The authors also used their collective school lunch research and practice experience to identify the most salient points to address.
Results: The following areas of the NSLP are presented: how it is administered; recent changes to the meal patterns and nutrition standards; revenue and costs; research and evaluation conducted after passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act; and current initiatives to enhance the NSLP.
Conclusions: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act improved the NSLP meal patterns and nutrition standards by aligning them with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Early published research on the impact of the updated meal patterns and nutrition standards on student dietary outcomes is promising and efforts to further enhance the NSLP are being implemented across the nation.
