by Morgan Flood, Policy Research Specialist

The second full week of October is National School Lunch Week! Falling on October 14-18 in 2024, National School Lunch Week is a time to raise awareness of and celebrate the National School Lunch Program. In this month’s Policy Blog, Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s Impact and Policy Research team shares a few key findings from our recent Youth Hunger Mapping report along with an interactive map that can help you understand and advocate for school lunch in your community!

Established under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act in 1946, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally funded meal program that provides low-cost, nutritious lunches to students in participating public, private, or residential schools. At the federal level, NSLP is overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); in Pennsylvania, the Department of Education (PDE) is responsible for the program. Schools that wish to participate in NSLP must agree to serve meals that meet specific nutritional standards and offer free or reduced-price lunches to children who qualify based on income, participation in certain government programs, or personal status.

In Pennsylvania, all children living in households under 185% of the federal poverty line (FPL) are eligible for free school lunch if they submit an application, thanks to a 2023 gubernatorial initiative that eliminates the reduced-lunch category. For a family of four, 185% FPL works out to $4,810 a month, or $57,720 annually. Students in high-poverty schools may be universally eligible under the Community Eligibility Provision as well. Expanding free lunch is an important policy step to help working families, but more can be done; seven states, including California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont, have committed to providing school meals to all children regardless of income and without the need for an application.

These states invested in children for good reason. According to the Food Research and Action Center, studies show that school lunch can reduce food insecurity, promote consumption of more nutritious food, increase student health, and even improve long-term educational and employment attainment among adults who participated. In addition to universal school lunch’s effectiveness in reducing stigma, a recent whitepaper from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School also showed that universality can meaningfully improve student achievement in reading and math, especially for low-income children.

On average, about three in five of Pennsylvania’s public-school students participated in NSLP as of October 2023; average daily participation rates for the Commonwealth in that time frame were 52.9%. In Central Pennsylvania, participation was even higher at 63.0%. The embedded dashboard below shows average daily participation rates by school district and school building statewide, along with data from the 2022 5-Year American Communities Survey about the proportion of potentially eligible children by school district. Click your local district and school and zoom in to learn more!

Take action to support school lunch in several ways – here are just a few!

  • Contact your state-level elected officials and encourage them to support universal lunch for Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren.
  • Contact your federal elected officials and ask them to support universal school lunch nationwide.
  • Encourage your school and school board to take action to increase school lunch participation locally.
  • Tell your family and friends about the importance of school lunch!

Having Trouble with the embedded map below?
Click Here to view the ArcGIS map.