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Founded by the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, the School Breakfast Program (SBP), like the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), provides nutritional meals to students at participating schools (and to children in a few residential child care institutions). Eligible students receive free or reduced-price breakfasts.
The number of schools participating in the SBP increased dramatically in the early 1990s, growing by nearly 9 percent annually between fiscal 1989 and fiscal 1995. Since then, the number of participating schools has continued to increase, although participation still lags that of the NSLP. In 2006, 78,085 schools participated, compared with more than 95,000 schools participating in the NSLP.
Student participation in the SBP has also grown. In fiscal 1989, 3.7 million students participated in the program on a given school day, and a total of 658 million breakfasts were served. In fiscal 2006, 9.8 million students participated in the program on a given school day, and a total of 1.7 billion breakfasts were served, 81 percent of which were free or reduced price.
Recommended readings—Recent ERS research projects related to the SBP have studied the effects of school nutrition programs on children's nutritional status and the feasibility of measuring the effect of school breakfasts on learning.
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