Statement by the President Upon Signing the National School Lunch Act

Speech

By: Harry S. Truman

Date: June 4, 1946

Source: Truman, Harry. "Statement by the President Upon Signing the National School Lunch Act." June 4, 1946. Truman Library Archives.

About the Author: Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) was the thirty-third president of the United States. He was born at Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884. A leader of the Democrats, Truman served as president from April 12, 1945, to January 20, 1953. During his tenure, he took several steps for the welfare of people, including programs designated for children. One of them was the contentious National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a federally financed meal program for students in public schools, nonprofit private schools, and residential child-care institutions. Truman died in Missouri on December 26, 1972.

INTRODUCTION

Many European countries are known to have initiated school food programs as early as the 1700s. Aiming to feed needy children, the first known school food program in the United States commenced in 1853. Undertaken by the Children's Aid Society of New York, the program served meals to children attending vocational schools in New York. Several other cities, including Boston and Philadelphia, followed suit. However, most of these programs were sporadic and were supported by charitable organizations.

In the early 1900s, research studies indicated a correlation between poor quality of work at school and malnutrition among students. By the 1930s, as many as fifteen states authorized local schools to operate food programs. While the cost of lunches under these programs was low, students did have to pay for their food. During the Great Depression of the 1930s and during World War II, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and National Youth Administration (NYA) organized various school lunch programs across all states. Mainly aided by donations, these programs covered 92,916 schools (feeding six million children daily) in 1942. However, the worsening economy and lack of funds affected school lunch programs. Advocates realized that legislation providing consistent federal aid to support the programs was required. Subsequently, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) was launched under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946.

Over the years, the National School Lunch Act has been amended. To strengthen the program and expand its reach, the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 was implemented. In the same year, the scope of the NSLP was extended—breakfast was offered to students up to eighteen years of age who participated in after-school educational and enrichment programs.

The Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers NSLP at the federal level and education agencies at the state level. Students of public and nonprofit private schools, as well as those in residential child-care institutions, are provided free lunch on school working days under this program.

The schools listed under NSLP get cash subsidies and receive donated commodities from the USDA for providing free food items as per the administration's guidelines. The guidelines make it mandatory for these schools to ensure that a maximum of thirty percent of a student's calories come from fat, with less than ten percent coming from saturated fat. The schools have also been instructed to provide one-third of the USDA's Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories.

Ever since the program began, more than 187 billion lunches have been served. The USDA indicates that about 7.1 million children benefited from NSLP in its very first year. The figures rose to twenty-two million children in 1970. A decade later it was close to twenty-seven million, and for the fiscal year 2003, the number of beneficiary students touched 28.4 million in more than 98,000 schools. However, with its reach, costs to the government have also increased. According to USDA, the program's total cost in 1947 was seventy million dollars. In 1950, it rose to 119.7 million dollars. Ten years later, the spending on free food items was 225.8 million dollars.

In 1946, when NSLP was launched, President Harry Truman delivered a speech to mark the occasion. In his speech, Truman termed the NSLP a landmark program that would provide much-needed assistance to poor children at school.

PRIMARY SOURCE

Today, as I sign the National School Lunch Act, I feel that the Congress has acted with great wisdom in providing the basis for strengthening the nation through better nutrition for our school children. In my message to Congress last January, I pointed out that we have the technical knowledge to provide plenty of good food for every man, woman, and child in this country, but that despite our capacity to produce food we have often failed to distribute it as well as we should. This action by the Congress represents a basic forward step toward correcting that failure.

In the long view, no nation is any healthier than its children or more prosperous than its farmers; and in the National School Lunch Act, the Congress has contributed immeasurably both to the welfare of our farmers and the health of our children.

Under previous school lunch programs made possible by year-to-year authorizations we have been able to provide as many as six million children with nutritious lunches at noon. This has laid a good foundation for the permanent program. In the future, increasing numbers will benefit—and on a permanent basis.

I hope that all State and local authorities will cooperate fully with the United States Department of Agriculture in establishing the cooperative school lunch in every possible community.

SIGNIFICANCE

Although deemed a successful program, the NSLP has generated intense debate in the early twentieth century. There has been "food fighting" among two factions—school authorities, including teachers, children, and parents; and the massive food and beverage industry. School authorities, teachers, and parents have often criticized the NSLP, especially the quality of food provided.

More than half of the population in the United States, especially children, is either overweight or obese. According to the National Survey Data, the number of overweight children has quadrupled since 1960. Research indicates that overweight students tend to have lower grades and hardly participate in sporting events. The obesity factor is more worrisome as children face the risk of diseases and ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, kidney failure, arthritis, and cancer. The U.S. surgeon general put the cost of obesity in 2000 at 117 billion dollars. The increase in obese or overweight children is attributed in part to the high fat content of meals served under the NSLP. Critics maintain that these meals do not follow nutrition guidelines and typically include food items such as hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and pork chops—all high in fat content and sodium.

Another controversy that has embroiled the NSLP is the introduction of irradiated beef in school lunches. Irradiated beef, according to researchers, in addition to having low nutritional value, exposes children to radiation. Despite extensive protests from parents and school authorities, the USDA introduced irradiated beef in 2003—allegedly due to mounting pressure from the food irradiation industry.

In the past few years, while the flaws in NSLP have been highlighted by critics, the Bush administration has not, according to reports, taken strong enough steps on the health front. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration was blasted for declaring ketchup a vegetable for NSLP. In the 1990s, the USDA announced that salsa (another low-nutrition food item) was an acceptable part of the school menu.

In 1998, Michele Simon, a public-health lawyer and director of the Center for Informed Food Choices (CIFC), pointed out in an article published inThe Animal's Agendathat the schools have become a dumping ground for high-fat and high-cholesterol meat and dairy products to salvage industry profits. The program has digressed from its goal of promoting good nutrition to children and opening more business opportunities for farmers. In fact, according to a 1993 survey, the USDA itself found the nutritional quality of most school lunches mediocre.

Moreover, the USDA reimburses schools only for the cost of food. Infrastructure, staff, and other costs associated with managing the NSLP are not included. Subsequently, many schools are facing a financial crunch and sometimes reduce their financial burden by relying on inexpensive foods.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Hiatt, Liisa and Jacob Alex Klerman.State Monitoring of National School Lunch Program Nutritional Content. Santa Monica, Calif: Rand, 2002.

Web sites

The Animal's Agenda. "Misery on the Menu: The National School Lunch Program." October 1998 <http://www. informedeating.org/docs/misery_on_the_menu.html> (accessed May 22, 2006).

Food Research and Action Center. "National School Lunch Program." March 2006 <http://www.frac.org/html/ federal_food_programs/programs/nslp.html> (accessed May 22, 2006).

Massachusetts Department of Education. "Child Nutrition Programs." <http://www.doe.mass.edu/cnp/programs/ nslp.html> (accessed May 22, 2006).

U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The National School Lunch Program Background and Development." <http://www. fns.usda.gov/cnd/Lunch/AboutLunch/NSLP-Program%20History.pdf> (accessed May 22, 2006).

U.S. Department of Agriculture. "USDA Releases Specifications for the Purchase of Irradiated Ground Beef in the National School Lunch Program." May 30, 2003 <http://www.fns.usda.gov/cga/PressReleases/2003/PR-0172.htm> (accessed May 22, 2006).

United States General Accounting Service. "School Lunch Program." May 2003 <http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ d03506.pdf> (accessed May 22, 2006).

The Weston A. Price Foundation. "Irradiated Meat: A Sneak Attack on School Lunches." December 6, 2003 <http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/irradiated-meat.html> (accessed May 22, 2006).