Money
Via The Hill
Thursday’s edition of the Federal Register contains 185 new agency submissions, including an update to the cost of the National School Lunch Program.
Nutriton: The price tag on Michelle Obama’s National School Lunch Program was inaccurately reported in the Federal Register earlier this month, so the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture is correcting the cost.
The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, which provides free and low-cost healthy meals to more than 31 million students, are now projected to cost taxpayers $16.4 billion for 7.8 billion million students in 2014.
The costs will continue to grow over the next couple years, according to government estimates, adding up to $17 billion by 2016.
In 2013, the costs totaled $15.9 billion.
Schools that participate in the lunch and breakfast programs receive a 6-cent reimbursement for each meal they serve to students, as well as food from the Agriculture Department to make sure it complies with the requirements.
The lunch and breakfast programs that Michelle Obama pushed for were authorized by Congress under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.