Efforts To Improve School Lunch Programs--Are They Paying Off?
CED-81-121
Published: Sep 09, 1981. Publicly Released: Sep 09, 1981.
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Highlights
School food service programs across the Nation, especially in high schools, are having difficulty in effectively providing lunches to the Nation's children. Many programs are faced with increasing meal costs, declining student participation, plate waste, and unanswered questions about the nutrients in the meals. GAO reviewed seven school districts to determine if their innovative approaches were solving or aggravating problems in the lunch program.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Agriculture | The Secretary of Agriculture should take a fresh look at Agriculture's one-third recommended dietary allowance (RDA) goal for school lunches and decide whether the achievement of some specified goal, such as one-third RDA, within acceptable limits of plate waste, cost, and student participation is considered unnecessary or impractical, and whether the goal should be dropped, and the program operated on the basis of providing a variety of foods within a specified meal pattern or some other achievable criteria. The Secretary should also decide whether the serving of lunches that will provide either one-third or some other specified percentages of the RDA's over time is considered important for students' nutritional well-being, and whether ways must be developed to ensure that the goal is essentially met within acceptable limits of plate waste, cost, and student participation. |
Due to widespread misunderstanding of proposed meal pattern regulations issued on September 4, 1981, the proposal was withdrawn and is being reevaluated in light of public and congressional reaction. Agriculture said that the GAO recommendations will be considered in this reevaluation.
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Topics
Cost controlFood programs for childrenInformation systemsNutrition surveysPlanningProgram managementSecondary schoolsStudentsFast food nutritionSchools