The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program are central parts of a national policy designed to safeguard the nutritional well-being of the Nation’s children. Despite the progress that has been achieved over the years in enhancing the quality of school meals, results of research conducted in the early 1990s indicated that school meals, on balance, were not meeting certain key nutritional goals. 

The NSLP offers free and reduced-price school meals to students from eligible households. Households with incomes at or below 130 percent of poverty are eligible for free meals, and households with incomes between 131 percent and 185 percent of poverty are eligible for reduced-price meals. Traditionally, to receive these benefits, households had to complete and submit application forms to schools or be directly certified. Direct certification, on the other hand, is a method of eligibility determination that does not require families to complete school meal applications. Instead, school officials use documentation from the local or state welfare agency that indicates that a household participates in AFDC or food stamps as the basis for certifying students for free school meals.

This report examines data from the Current Population Survey in order to analyze trends in free and reduced price certification and participation in the National School Lunch Program during the period of 1993-1997. The data indicate that free certifications for NSLP as a percentage of CPS estimated eligibles have been increasing for several years and was 118% in 1997 (latest available). 

This report presents the characteristics of schools and students by their school meal program participation and certification status in the spring of 1992. The analysis is based on data from the most recent school nutrition data collection effort, the 1992 School Nutrition Dietary Assessment (SNDA) survey.