Feeding Democracy: Protection, Defense, and Scientific Nutrition in the National School Lunch Program

Presenter: Phoebe Petersen (History)

Mentor: Ellen Herman

Facilitator: Nedzer Erilus

The text of the 1946 National School Lunch Act (NSLA) asserts three central reasons for enacting National School Lunch Program (NSLP): it was “a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food”. Rooted in twentieth century ideas about the rights of childhood and the government’s interest in protecting children for national security, the implementation of scientific nutrition standards, which also developed around the turn of the twentieth century, was the means through which the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) set out to use the NSLP to protect children. An analysis of the evolving nutrition standards set out in twentieth century USDA food guides for all Americans in conjunction with the primarily static NSLP food standards provides evidence of the rigor with which the USDA pursued its goal of using scientific nutrition to protect children. By tracing the evolution and implementation of scientific nutrition in the NSLP through USDA documents and other public accounts, it becomes clear that despite placing agriculture, the protection of children, and national security as equals, the NSLP has shown overwhelming loyalty to agriculture at the expense of children’s health.