The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 allows school districts to provide free meals to all students if over 40 percent of them are directly certified as free-meal eligible. While emerging evidence documents positive effects on student behavior and academics, critics worry that CEP has unintended…

The issue of school food and its role in the learning environment has been overlooked by educators, education researchers, and policy makers. This study uses observations and interviews in three high-poverty, urban schools to investigate how participants experience school food policy in their daily lives. Participants at all three schools believed…

The Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program was launched as an effort to address the loss of access to free and reduced-price school meals due to widespread school closures at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools reopened in a shifting mix of fully virtual, hybrid, and in-person formats and families lacked consistent access…

During the U.S. post-WWII recovery, appropriations for school lunch became codified in the 1946 National School Lunch Act, fueling program growth in the baby boom era to 18.9 million participating children by 1967, or about 42 percent of 45 million enrolled students. Then, in 1968, two reports funded by the Field Foundation of New York highlighted…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on Latino children's health and learning. This fact sheet examines the specific impact on Latino children's well-being and ability to learn and provides steps to keep children healthy and ready for school.

The next President of the United States has an enormous responsibility--and opportunity--to provide an equitable foundation for a new generation of learners. The magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated the importance of schools as community anchors that children and families rely on for much more than an education. This document…

Students need more than just "any" lunch or breakfast to do well in school--the "quality" of these meals counts also. Studies have demonstrated the role healthy diets can play in students' academic achievement. That's why President Obama signed into law the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in December 2010. This historic legislation provides free…

Statements were presented by: Honorable Tom Harkin, Chairman, U.S. Senator from Iowa, Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Honorable Robert B. Casey, Jr., U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania; Honorable Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator from Georgia; Honorable Richard G. Lugar; Honorable Ken Salazar, U.S. Senator from Colorado; Kelly…

The National School Lunch Act, enacted in 1946, is the cornerstone of food delivery legislation that feeds nearly 25 million American schoolchildren each day. Since then there have been numerous new acts and amendments that have further enlarged the scope of child nutrition. These laws are compiled to provide readily available information on the…

"Kids Count in Colorado!" is an annual publication of the Children's Campaign, providing state and county level data on child well-being factors including child health, education, and economic status. Since its first release 20 years ago, "Kids Count in Colorado!" has become the most trusted source for data and information on…

The Hunger Relief Act of 1986 shows the broad concern in Congress and among the American people for the elimination of hunger and malnutrition in America. Four Congressional committees participated in advancing this legislation, which provides a 12-point plan for improving the nutrition programs serving low-income Americans. The committees heard…

These hearings on the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs are organized in two parts, the contents of which are as follows. Part I concerns the Summer Lunch Program Funding, with opening statements by two senators, followed by the presentations of other witnesses. The focus of these two parts is on such topics as program needs,…

In 1975, Congress established the School Breakfast Program, which gives federal funds to help schools provide morning meals to children. The Food Research and Action Center has worked to increase the number of schools participating in the program. This document is a handbook for organizing a school breakfast program at the local level. Chapters in…

For millions of Americans, hunger is an everyday fact of life. Hunger destroys a man physically and mentally so that he is incapable of achieving a meaningful and productive place in society. Although many politicians and laymen state that the poor and hungry are shiftless and lazy, and that feeding them will destroy their self-reliance, a recent…

The Nation's 1973 child nutrition agenda has five items. (1) Of first concern must be the fulfillment of America's pledge to feed a free or reduced price lunch to every hungry child. A serious assault is required on the problem of facilities: some 18,000, or about 17 percent, of the Nation's schools lack lunchroom and kitchen equipment. (2) The…