Giving Compass' Take:

• Jonathan Butcher at The Heritage Foundation discusses President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal would put an end to grouping schools together with the idea to provide free meal benefits to children and students truly in need.  

• What other assistance programs are in the works to help children receive the nutrition and school lunches they deserve?

• Here's why student lunch debt is a huge issue. 

The National School Lunch Program has changed dramatically since it began in 1946. What started as a grant program to help poor students and those with special needs has morphed into a massive entitlement offering meals to 30 million students every year — equivalent to nearly 55% of all children enrolled in public and private schools.

And the bigger the program got, the more wasteful it became. The Office of Management and Budget now classifies the school lunch program as a “high-error” program due to large losses from incorrect payments each year — nearly $800 million in FY 2018 alone.

In 2010, the Obama administration approved letting school districts offer free meals to all students in schools where 40% of the student body come from low-income families that qualify for public assistance such as food stamps. This “Community Eligibility Provision” is providing meals — breakfast as well as lunch — to kids from middle- and upper-income families.

Read the full article about national school lunch programs by Jonathan Butcher at The Heritage Foundation.