USDA requested that the committee provide recommendations for the updating and revision of the Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements for the school lunch and breakfast programs. The committee was asked to (1) outline the proposed criteria and process to be used to develop recommended revisions to the Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements for both meal programs, (2) discuss how the concepts presented in Institute of Medicine reports and focused on the application of Dietary Reference Intakes to planning and assessment will be applied to school meals in Phase II, and (3) propose plans for undertaking a sensitivity analysis and for considering cost implications and market effects.

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.