Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes

History of School Lunch

Private societies and associations, interested in the well being of children, started the first school lunch programs in the 1850s. Then, in 1904 Robert Hunter wrote a book entitledPoverty, in which he stated, "…learning is difficult because hungry stomachs and languid bodies and thin blood are not able to feed the brain." This book was influential in the creation of more school lunch programs, but they were all still supported by private source of funding. Before the1900s people ate very differently than they do today, both the structure of their meals and the foods present at the table. Agriculture was a large part of daily life for most Americans, and they ate a large breakfast in the morning, a large dinner in the afternoon, and a light supper in the evening. All of these meals were consumed in the home and were prepared with fresh ingredients. ¹⁷ As industrialization took place, the structure of meals began to change. People began bringing lunch to work, which replaced the large afternoon dinner. It was still prepared at home, but was now eaten in public and had to be easy to transport. As for students, they would often walk home for lunch, and then walk back to school to finish the remainder of their day.

A variety of changes in society occurred. Some students began coming to school from farther away and were not able to go home for lunch, or their parents were at work during lunchtime and were unable to prepare lunch for them. ¹⁸ In the 1920s the first lunch programs began, but they were all funded by private organizations. In earlier days, schools had only been concerned with the academic education of students: now the added concern of the welfare of the child appeared. Where family and community had once been the major force in a child's life concerned with his/her welfare, schools began taking on much of this responsibility. ¹⁹ As school lunch programs were piloted their initial appeal was teaching students acceptable table manners along how to select healthy foods. Students were encouraged to spend their few pennies on healthy foods instead of on sweets at the corner store. Cooking lessons were also a part of the curriculum. ²⁰

In the 1930s the depression took a toll on farmers - no one could afford to buy crops. Therefore, children were starving and a surplus of crops was piling up. In 1935 Congress passed a law that the government would purchase up to 30% of produce and would distribute it to school lunch programs. This allowed students to receive nutritional meals, and the surplus was being consumed instead of wasted. ²¹ Schools that could demonstrate students with the most need received a larger allotment than schools where students could afford to pay. "The maximum quantity of any food that any school could receive was based upon a maximum quantity per child per month established by the USDA. This method of allocation still persists today." ²² Through the WPA federal funding was provided to staff school lunch programs, menus and manuals.

World War II had a huge effect on the lunch program because the surplus food that had been sent to schools was now being sent to troops, and the WPA programs were all cut. In their place schools were given a cash subsidy to purchase food, but it was still a drastic cut from what they had been receiving previously. ²³ In 1946 President Truman signed the National School Lunch Act, which made school lunch a permanent part of the budget. The House Committee on Agriculture Report stated, "The Need for a permanent legislative basis for a school lunch program, rather than operating it on a year-to-year basis, or one dependent solely on agricultural surpluses that for a child may be nutritionally unbalanced or nutritionally unattractive, has now become apparent." ²⁴ States with lower per capita income received more money, as did states with more school-aged children. ²⁵

"Between 1968 and 1972 the National School Lunch Program was transformed from being primarily an agricultural subsidy into one of the nation's premier poverty programs." ²⁶ Because of this shift, the focus was placed on money to buy the meals, and the quality of the meals declined drastically. Food was no longer prepared in the school cafeteria; instead, it was outsourced so that already prepared food was simply brought in, heated and served. Many of the foods which were prepared outside of the cafeteria had to be fortified in order to meet the USDA requirement of provide students with one-third of their RDAs throughout the week. Ronald Reagan cut the budget for the National School Lunch Program by almost a quarter throughout his term in office. He also made the guidelines for students to receive free or reduced lunch prices much more strict. The requirements for food servings dropped drastically and ketchup and relish became vegetables, while cake and corn chips became bread. ²⁷ In the 1990s schools began to shift to the private food-service industry, just as my school switched to Aramark. ²⁸ That is where we stand today - many school cafeterias are run by large private service corporations with intent on making money and little care for the nutritional value of the meals they serve.