School Food: Special Assistance

A major shift in the School Lunch Act program came in the 1960s, beginning with the launch of a pilot special assistance program that consisted of free lunches for children of families whose incomes were at USDA poverty-level rates and reduced-price lunches for children of families whose incomes were 125 percent of poverty level in low-income areas. The program was permanently authorized by the National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, which also funded a school breakfast pilot, as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. It was expanded to needy children in all schools in 1970.