Healthy, nutritious meals help children learn and thrive in school. Pew combined research and policy recommendations to ensure that federal, state, and local policymakers adopt and implement practices to ensure all students have access to safe and healthy foods at school. Learn more about Pew’s advocacy efforts to improve school nutrition.
As of 2013, 88 percent of school districts needed at least one additional piece of kitchen equipment to help prepare and serve meals that meet the National School Lunch Program’s nutrition standards, according to a survey by the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project. Only 42 percent of meal programs, however, reported having budgets for equipment purchases; of those, less than half said their own resources would cover all their needs.
More than 30 million students—about 3 in 5 schoolkids—participate daily in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), even though many of them and their families may not realize it. Created by Congress in 1946, the NSLP helps pay for 5 billion healthy lunches served each year in 95 percent of public schools and thousands of private ones too.
