National School Lunch Program

The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act signed into law in 1946 by President Truman. The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation’s second largest food and nutrition assistance program. One of the main goals of the NSLP, and Northern Tioga School District is to promote the health and well-being of the children of our district. In recent years, questions have been raised about the program’s ability to meet this goal, especially as the main nutrition problem has been shifted from under-nutrition to overweight and obesity.

Therefore, Northern Tioga School District has imposed strict nutritional requirements on both NSLP foods and “competitive foods” (other foods and beverages available in the school). The cafeteria continually strives to improve the nutritional quality of foods served at both breakfast and lunch. Each school in the district has a cooking kitchen to provide the students with the highest quality and freshness of meals. The department is continually restructuring its program to limit the highly processed/ convenience foods from the menu choices and to focus on foods that have a higher level of nutritional integrity.

Northern Tioga School District operates a school breakfast program at all the schools in the district. The free or reduced price eligibility meal status is for both breakfast and lunch meals. For more information, contact Judith Quick, Food Service Director at 814-258-5644, x1024 or email at judith.quick@ntiogasd.org