Mr. WHITTEN. We come now to the school lunch program. I would like to have pages 54 through 60 of the justifications, together with the supporting table in the record at this point. (The above-mentioned pages follow :) The school-lunch program is designed to 1. Broaden the market for agricultural food commodities by— (a) Providing an expanded market for agricultural commodities through local purchases of food by school-lunch programs in commercial channels of trade; (b) Serving as a valuable outlet for agricultural commodities purchased by the Department to alleviate local and seasonal surpluses; (c) Expanding the outlet for highly nutritious foods, particularly in areas of nutritional deficiencies; (d) Introducing a wider variety of foods, thus creating a demand for commodities that many housewives would not otherwise buy. 2. Improve the health and well-being of the Nation's children by (a) Providing them a well-balanced lunch at school to help fill their daily nutritional requirements. Experience indicates that children who get lunch under this program, compared with those who do not, show (1) More rapid gain in weight and height; (2) Better attendance records: (3) Improvement in scholastic standing; (4) Better deportment; (5) Higher resistance to colds and other illnesses. (b) Developing proper and nutritionally beneficial food habits which will continue in later late. Current activity under the program includes: 1. Furnishing cash assistance to schools for food purchases by (a) Apportioning among the States and Territories a minimum of 75 percent of the total funds available on the basis of need as indicated by (1) State per capita income compared with United States per capita income; (2) State population of children 5 to 17 years of age. (b) Making periodic advances of the apportioned funds to State agencies to enable them to reimburse participating schools for a portion of the food costs of lunches served when the schools (1) Agree to operate on a nonprofit basis; (2) Serve meals meeting minimum nutritional standards prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture; (3) Offer lunch to all children attending the school and serve it free or at reduced cost to children who are unable to pay the full cost; (4) Agree to purchase commodities designated by the Secretary of Agriculture as being in abundance. (c) Paying the funds directly to participating private schools in the 28 States, Hawaii, and Guam where State laws forbid disbursement of Federal funds by State agencies to private schools. A proportionate share of the State's total apportionment is set aside for this purpose.) 2. Furnishing food items to schools for lunch programs by distributing to schools through State distributing agencies, commodities acquired under-(a) Section 6, National School Lunch Act. Commodities are purchased on the basis of their nutritional value and acceptability, and distributeed to schools participating in the school lunch program under this act. (b) Removal of surplus agricultural commodities (sec. 32). Surplus commodities are purchased and donated to authorized outlets, including all eligible school lunch programs. (c) Commodity Credit Corporation. Commodities acquired under price-support programs may be donated to authorized outlets, including all eligible school lunch programs (sec. 416, Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended), 3. Furnishing administrative and technical assistance to State agencies and participating schools with respect to (a) Management of funds; (b) Purchase and storage of food; (c) Proper use of equipment; (d) Preparation and serving of meals; (e) Maintenance of records and preparation of reports; (f) Development of recipes, particularly to utilize donated and plentiful commodities; (g) Reasons for participation and nonparticipation in program. 4. Making reviews and audits which provide for (a) Annual audits of the records of State agencies and selected schools; (b) Comprehensive administrative analyses of State agencies' operations under the program; (c) Administrative reviews in individual schools as necessary. Program policy is to encourage and assist State educational agencies to assume increasing responsibility for the administration of the program. In addition to the responsibility for the administrative review of individual programs which all States have assumed, 16 States have assumed responsibility for the individual school audit programs and several additional States are developing plans to take over this responsibility. Work has been undertaken, with the active cooperation of a representative group of State school lunch directors, on a broad review of school lunch operating procedures looking toward possible simplifications and additional areas in which the States could effectively assume increased responsibility. EXAMPLES OF RECENT PROGRESS AND TRENDS The school lunch program furnished noonday meals to about 30 percent of the Nation's 37 million schoolchildren in the fiscal year 1957. This program also utilized 3 billion pounds of food, of which 2.5 billion pounds were purchased in local markets and 0.5 billion pounds were donated by the Department. A. Peak month participation was 10.8 million children in 1957 Participation in the national school lunch program, fiscal years 1956 and 1957, by month Year-to-year comparisons in number of schools participating are affected by the school consolidation program. B. Number of each type of meal serviced and Federal reimbursement rate 1 Maximum rate permitted: Type A, 9 cents; type B, 6 cents; type C, 2 cents. 2 Average rate per complete meal with milk Represents estimated requirements based upon expenditures during fiscal year 1957. Distribution of additional funds to schools is contingent upon justification of need. A total of $75,000,000 is authorized for program including nonprofit child-care institutions. 2 Preliminary. D. Benefits to agriculture Commodities utilized during 1957 in the school lunch program cost approximately $561.7 million. Of this amount, about $415.0 million was expended by schools locally-both Federal and State funds. The remaining $146.7 million is the estimated cost of 529.0 million pounds of commodities which the Department purchased and distributed to schools under section 6 of the National School Lunch Act, section 32 of the act of 1935, as amended, and section 416 of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended. |