The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides low-cost or free lunches to children and operates in nearly 100,000 public and nonprofit private schools (grades pre-kindergarten–12) and residential child care institutions. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers the NSLP and reimburses participating schools and residential child care institutions for the meals served to students. Any student in a participating school can get an NSLP lunch. Students from households with incomes:
- At or below 130 percent of the Federal poverty line can receive a free lunch.
- Between 130 and 185 percent of the Federal poverty line can receive a reduced-price lunch.
- Above 185 percent of the Federal poverty line can receive a low-cost, full-price lunch.
In fiscal year (FY) 2024, the program provided more than 4.8 billion lunches at a total cost of $17.7 billion.
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The USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) report, The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends, and Issues, 2024 Edition, provides an overview of the NSLP, documents major changes to the program since 2008, and examines historical trends and participant characteristics. It also summarizes relevant research on the financial status of school food authorities (SFAs) responsible for implementing the program at the local level, program participation, the nutritional quality of school lunches, and the impact of the program on children’s diets. The Amber Waves article, School Food Authorities Work With State and Federal Agencies To Implement the National School Lunch Program, highlights the NLSP budgetary process and environment and explains the challenges SFAs face in balancing their budgets.
An ERS-sponsored 2010 study found that children from food-insecure and marginally food-secure households received more of their food and nutrient intake from school meals than did other children. To learn more, please see:
Participation in USDA’s child nutrition programs, including NSLP, has been found to reduce food insecurity and food insufficiency. To learn more, please see:
- State Universal Free School Meal Policies Reduced Food Insufficiency Among Children in the 2022–2023 School Year
- Children’s Food Security and USDA Child Nutrition Programs
Meals served through NSLP must meet Federal nutrition standards, which were updated in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA) to more closely match the Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The legislation also authorized an additional Federal reimbursement payment per meal (8 cents as of the 2023–24 school year) to schools when they demonstrated that they were serving meals that met the updated standards and established new regulations for meal prices charged to students not certified for free or reduced-price meals. To learn more about the new standards, their effect on children’s nutritional intake, and how schools strive to provide healthy and appealing meals that encourage student participation, please see:
- School Meals in Transition
- USDA School Meal Programs: How and Why the Cost of Food Purchases Varies Across Locales
- Trends in USDA Foods Ordered for Child Nutrition Programs Before and After Updated Nutrition Standards
- USDA School Meals Support Food Security and Good Nutrition
- Schoolchildren Consumed More Whole Grains Following Change in School Meal Standards
- Trends in U.S. Whole-Grain Intakes 1994–2018: The Roles of Age, Food Source, and School Food
In response to concerns about the role of the school food environment in children's diets and other issues, the HHFKA also established updated nutrition standards for non-USDA foods sold in schools participating in USDA's school meal programs (often called “competitive foods”). The HHFKA also created the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), an option that allows high-poverty schools to offer free meals to all students. To learn more about CEP, please see:
Through the NSLP After-School Snack Program—authorized by Congress in 1998—participating schools can offer nutritious snacks to enrolled students as part of after-care educational programs or enrichment activities. Snacks meeting Federal nutrition requirements are subsidized on a sliding scale based on whether students qualify for free, reduced-price, or full-price meals. Schools in which at least 50 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals (i.e., come from families with household incomes below 185 percent of the Federal poverty line) are "area eligible" and have their snacks subsidized at the free rate for all participating students. USDA also provides after-school snacks and meals through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). In fiscal year (FY) 2024, the After-School Snack Program provided an average of 1.3 million snacks daily and a total of 163 million snacks for the year. Approximately 91 percent of snacks were served in high-need, area-eligible schools.
ERS examined the school and district-level characteristics associated with offering the NSLP After-School Snack Program using USDA’s School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study IV, conducted from January to June in 2010. Schools with a higher share of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches were more likely than other schools to offer the program, as were those in high poverty districts and urban areas. Elementary schools were more likely to offer the program than middle schools, whereas high schools were less likely to offer it. To learn more, please see:
USDA also offers grants and resources to school districts and their school food authorities—which administer the NSLP at the local level—to use locally produced foods in school meals and to implement "farm-to-school" activities to spark students' interest in trying new foods. A FNS survey of school food authorities in the 2018–19 school year found that about two-thirds participated in farm-to-school activities, such as using local foods in the preparation of meals or using food coaches to promote the consumption of local foods. To learn more about the characteristics of school districts likely to serve local foods, please see:
To respond to disruptions caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, USDA issued waivers allowing for flexibilities in the implementation of the NSLP and expanded the scope and coverage of the program’s Seamless Summer Option (SSO). USDA also created the temporary Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program to reimburse families with children eligible for free or reduced-price school meals for the value of school meals missed due to pandemic-related disruptions to in-person instruction at schools. The pandemic-related waivers expired in June 2022 and P-EBT expired at the end of FY 2023. The 2024 report, The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report, provides a summary of these pandemic-related modifications to NSLP and other Child Nutrition programs. ERS research on P-EBT and the pandemic-related changes to NSLP include:
- COVID-19 Working Paper: Filling the Pandemic Meal Gap: Disruptions to Child Nutrition Programs and Expansion of Free Meal Sites in the Early Months of the Pandemic
- COVID-19 Working Paper: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer Redemptions during the Coronavirus Pandemic
- Cost of School Meals and Households’ Difficulty Paying for Expenses: Evidence From the Household Pulse Survey
- One-Third of Households With Children Paying for School Meals Reported That Doing So Contributed to Financial Hardship
All values and figures are based on data available as of December 2024 and may be subject to revision.
Additional studies and information about program eligibility requirements, benefits, and application processes are available from the Food and Nutrition Service Child Nutrition Programs web page.