How many children have been served over the years?
The National School Lunch Act in 1946 created the modern school lunch program, though USDA had provided funds and food to schools for many years prior to that. About 7.1 million children were participating in the National School Lunch Program by the end of its first year, 1946-47. By 1970, 22 million children were participating, and by 1980 the figure was nearly 27 million. In 1990, an average of 24 million children ate school lunch every day. In Fiscal Year 2000, more than 27.4 million children each day got their lunch through the National School Lunch Program. Since the modern program began, more than 180 billion lunches have been served.
