Last updated on: 7/10/2013 | Author: ProCon.org

1946 – National School Lunch Act Passed

In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act into law. The act was designed to provide nutritious lunches to the nation’s children. The reasoning behind the act was laid out in its text: “It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress, as a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food, by assisting the States, through grants-in aid and other means, in providing an adequate supply of food and other facilities for the establishment, maintenance, operation and expansion of nonprofit school lunch programs.”

The Secretary of Agriculture prescribed three types of lunches which would be acceptable under the act, designed as Type A, Type B, and Type C.

It was mandated that each lunch include between 1/2 to 2 pints of whole milk.