- Make healthy school meals for all children permanent.
- Strengthen nutrition standards for school meals to align with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, including a new standard for added sugars.
- Increase the reimbursement rate schools receive for serving meals that meet current nutrition standards.
- Increase funding to support schools’ efforts to offer healthy meals, including resources for new school kitchen equipment, and training and technical assistance for school food service staff.
- Expand the Community Eligibility Provision that allows schools in high-poverty areas to serve free meals to all students, regardless of family income.
- Support state efforts to make school meals available to all children free of charge permanently and implement nutrition standards that go beyond the federal standards.
Recommendation
School Meal Programs Recommendations
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation offers the following recommendations to strengthen school meal programs.
Expert Perspective
School meal nutrition update 2.0: How to get it right
Issue Brief