The National School Lunch Program
Download these guides:
Best Practices in School Meal Application
Qualifying Students for School Meals
...guarantees that millions of low-income children receive a healthy lunch during their school day. All children can participate in the program, but low-income children qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Any public school, charter or nonprofit private school can participate in the National School Lunch Program, and public or nonprofit private residential child care institutions can also participate.
What happening with school lunch in Maryland?
School Meal Application Campaign
When a student qualifies for free meals but has no application on file, the school loses more than $600 over the course of the school year in federal nutrition reimbursements. Collecting meal applications is a rare win-win-win-win situation: good for the nutrition, health and learning of Maryland students; good for struggling parents; good for test scores and other educational outcomes; and good for the state government’s fiscal well-being.
Maryland Hunger Solutions can help by:
- advocating for policy improvements to make school meals work for low-income families and improve meal quality;
- conducting outreach to increase participation in school meals;
- implementing a plan to collect meal applications to enable Maryland schools to access full federal funding;
- helping your school enroll in the National School Lunch Program or develop strategies to improve school meal quality;
- promoting the new Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program in Maryland's elementary schools.
