The National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs have been feeding millions of children for decades. On a typical school day in 2013, more than 30 million—nearly three in five — students ate a school lunch. Over 70% of those children — more than 21 million — received a free or reduced-price meal. That means that more than two in five students benefited from free or reduced-price lunches on a typical day last year. But some children who could benefit from free school meals miss out because their school district doesn’t automatically enroll them as required. States can improve their processes for automatically enrolling children for free meals when their family receives SNAP benefits. School districts can make sure they are identifying children who homeless or in foster care so that they begin receiving free meals immediately during a period of family turmoil. And a new policy allows schools to begin feeding low-income children as soon as they receive an application, even if they have a processing backlog.
Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 9/8/14, School Meals
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