Review The Federal Governments Initiatives Regarding The School Lunch And Breakfast Programs

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These hearing transcripts provide testimony on a rule proposed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), "Nutrition Objectives for School Meals," that would require meals served under the national school lunch program to be consistent with federal dietary guidelines. The majority of the testimony addressed the content of school meals and efficacy of the proposed rule, either supporting the USDA's guidelines or calling for more local autonomy in planning meals to meet nutrition guidelines. Testimony was heard from: (1) Representatives Charles W. Stenholm, Pat Roberts, Steve Gunderson, and Dan Glickman; (2) Ellen Haas, the Assistant Secretary, Food and Consumer Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture; (3) the Wheat Foods Council; (4) the National Milk Producers Federation; (5) the American Cancer Society; (6) the Society for Nutrition Education; (7) the National Food Processors Association; (8) the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports; (9) the Food Research and Action Center; (10) the American School Food Services Association; (11) the National Parent-Teacher Association; (12) Public Voice for Food and Health Policy; (13) the National Cattlemen's Association; (14) the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association; (15) the Canadian Pediatric Society; (16) the American Heart Association; (17) the California Department of Education; (18) the Produce Marketing Association; and (19) the International Dairy Foods Association. (MDM)

In fiscal year 2008, the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program provided meals to 30.9 million and 10.5 million children, respectively. Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued the first estimate of improper payments due to meal counting and claiming errors in these programs, which was approximately $860 million (8.6 percent of federal program reimbursements) in school year 2005-2006. These errors include: (1) cashier errors, such as those made in determining if a meal meets the federal menu planning and nutrition requirements (meal counting), and (2) aggregation errors made when officials count and total meals for federal reimbursement (meal claiming). GAO was asked to review (1) actions taken by states and school food authorities (SFA) to identify and address meal counting and claiming errors; and (2) actions taken by USDA to help states and SFAs identify and address meal counting and claiming errors. GAO's steps included analyzing data on state administrative reviews of SFAs; surveying all states; conducting site visits; and interviewing federal, state, and SFA officials.

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