USDA’s National School Lunch Program served about 246 billion lunches from fiscal years 1969 through 2024

USDA’s National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provided more than 4.8 billion lunches in fiscal year (FY) 2024, and nearly 246 billion lunches since FY 1969. The program operates in nearly 100,000 public and nonprofit private schools (grades pre-kindergarten–12) and residential childcare institutions. Students are typically eligible for either a free, reduced-price, or full-price lunch through the program depending on their household’s income. The share of lunches served for free or at a reduced price rose from 15.1 percent in FY 1969 to 74.1 percent in FY 2019. A higher share of lunches was served for free or at a reduced price from FY 2020 through FY 2022 largely because of USDA waivers allowing meals to be provided free of charge to all students nationwide during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. USDA pandemic waivers also allowed schools to serve meals through the Summer Food Service Program or the NSLP’s Seamless Summer Option in those years, while the temporary Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program reimbursed eligible families for the value of school meals missed because of pandemic-related disruptions to school operations. The waivers expired in Summer 2022, while P-EBT expired at the end of FY 2023. In FY 2024, 72.4 percent of lunches were provided for free or at a reduced price. This chart appears on the USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) National School Lunch Program page within the Child Nutrition Programs topic page.