Free or reduced-price lunch

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The free or reduced price-lunch program, sometimes referred to as FRPL, refers to the lunches served as part of the National School Lunch Program, a federally assisted meal program that operates in over 100,000 public and nonprofit private schools and other residential child care institutions. The program resulted from the National School Lunch Act of 1946 signed by President Truman. Since its inception, when 7.1 million children were served lunch for a total cost of $70 million ($747 million in 2014 dollars controlled for inflation), the program grew to serve roughly 31.6 million children for a total cost of $11.6 billion in 2012. Between 2002, when the program cost about $6.1 billion per year, and 2012 the cost of the program nearly doubled.[1][2]

History

After a number of Americans were found unfit for duty during the WWII draft, investigations showed that many children suffered from poor nutrition. Congress passed the National School Lunch Act in 1946 in an effort to improve the health and nutrition of American citizens, although the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had been providing funds and food to schools for many years prior to that. In its first year (1946-1947), approximately 7.1 million children were being served meals as part of the National School Lunch Program. By 1970 the number of children served was 22 million, by 1980 almost 27 million, by 1990 over 24 million children, and by 2012 more than 31.6 million children were being served their lunch each day through the National School Lunch Program. As of 2013 more than 224 billion free or reduced lunches have been served through the program as of 2013.[1][3]

Operations

The program does not directly fund schools to pay for school lunches. Instead, the USDA (or sometimes smaller, state-level organizations) reimburses the school with cash or replacement food for each lunch served under the FRPL program. There is also an opportunity for schools to be reimbursed for certain snack food items served at after-school programs. School lunches served under this program must also adhere to the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans in order to receive reimbursement. To determine which students are eligible for the program, the government uses the current poverty line. Students whose families are at or below 130 percent of the poverty line are eligible for free school lunches. Students whose families fall between 130 and 185 percent of the poverty rate are eligible for reduced price lunches. According to the USDA, for the period July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014, 130 percent of the poverty level was calculated at $30,615 for a family of four, and 185 percent came to $43,568.[2]

The price of these lunches cannot be greater than $0.40. Students whose families are receiving food stamps, as well as students who are homeless, migrant, or runaways may also qualify for free lunches under this program. In 2012, the FRPL program served 31.6 million students per day. As of 2013, the program had served 224 billion lunches to children in schools nationwide.[2][4]

The FRPL program has also been used as a tool to assess poverty. Since the number of students and families who participate in these programs is reported yearly, the program can be a more accurate tool for determining the number of families in poverty than the national census. This approach loses accuracy with high school-aged students, however, as there is generally lower participation in FRPL programs beyond elementary and middle school.[4]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 United States Department of Agriculture, "National School Lunch Program," accessed September 16, 2014
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 United States Department of Agriculture, "NSLP fact sheet," accessed September 16, 2014
  3. ↑ Food Research and Action Center, "National School Lunch Program," accessed September 19, 2014
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Federal Education Budget Project, "Federal school nutrition programs," accessed September 16, 2014
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