Public schools across North Carolina are struggling with an out-of-classroom issue that in its 54-year history has undergone quite an evolution. President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act in 1946, and it was a blessing indeed to many children who had paid no attention to nutrition or went hungry. Twenty years later, the program included a breakfast program for poor children. In the years since, some peculiar things have happened. Budget cuts in the program caused some cafeterias to close. Some schools went to a la carte sales that included "fast food" type items.
But then...then folks started getting more health-minded, and schools these days really do try to provide meals that are not high in fat and sugar and the like. (The General Assembly made that a requirement in 2006.) But healthy food is more expensive, and school lunch programs run in the red. There also appear to be some glitches in the funding formula, as reported by The News & Observer's Stanley B. Chambers Jr. For example: some school districts charge food programs for indirect costs such as janitorial services and utilities. That seems ridiculous. And apparently, if the funding formula for reduced-price meals was tweaked just a bit, the state might have more access to money from the federal government.
The crusade for healthier school food has led to gardens being grown to help cafeterias, and much discussion among parents (and PTAs) about spreading the gospel of healthy food from the kitchen table to the lunchroom table. That's where this movement can really gain momentum.
