Mandatory Spending
Function 600 - Income Security
Eliminate Subsidies for Certain Meals in the National School Lunch, School Breakfast, and Child and Adult Care Food Programs
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
| Billions of Dollars | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 | 2031 | 2032 | 2023– 2027 |
2023– 2032 |
| Change in Outlays | -0.1 | -0.8 | -1.0 | -1.2 | -1.2 | -1.3 | -1.3 | -1.3 | -1.4 | -1.4 | -4.3 | -11.1 |
This option would take effect in July 2023.
The National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program provide funds that enable public schools, nonprofit private schools, child and adult care centers, and residential child care institutions to offer subsidized meals and snacks to participants. The programs provide subsidies for all meals served, though those subsidies are larger for meals served to participants from households with income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty guidelines (commonly known as the federal poverty level, or FPL).
This option would eliminate the subsidies for meals and snacks served to participants from households with income greater than 185 percent of the FPL through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, and in child and adult care centers through the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Meals and snacks served to participants from households with income at or below 185 percent of the FPL would still be subsidized. Similarly, all meals served in schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision would still be subsidized. This option would not affect Child and Adult Care Food Program participants in day care homes.