School Meals and Other Child Nutrition Programs: Background and Funding. CRS Report R46234, Version 15. Updated

Abstract

The federal government has a long history of investing in programs for feeding children, starting with federal aid for school lunch programs in the 1930s. Today, federal child nutrition programs support food served to children in schools and a variety of other settings. This report starts with an overview of child nutrition programs' funding structure and then provides detail on each program, including a discussion of how they are administered, eligibility rules for institutions and participants, nutritional and other program requirements, and recent policy changes. Changes to child nutrition programs that occurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are summarized in this report.