Hungry children at schools

I'm watching a TV ad about hungry children and school feeding programs. It’s a very positive message about how these programs help children learn.

I attended kindergarten in Alameda, CA during WWII and remember receiving free milk (in glass bottles). I asked my husband who went to first grade (no kindergarten) in Indianapolis. He remembers free milk also--he even recalled leaving the classroom and going to a particular place in the building to get the milk.

When I was in high school we could buy milk cartons for 2 cents (no pop in the building in those days). The lunch program in the 1950s used "surplus government commodities," and according to the document cited below it began in 1947. Who can forget shredded turkey in gravy on mashed potatoes with a side of green beans? Not as good as mom's. My mother recalled lunches at her one room country school in Lee County, IL, but the parents brought it.

Now children can receive breakfast, lunch, after school snacks and summer nutrition programs when schools are closed either free or subsidized by the government. Breakfast programs began in 1966 as a pilot program, and became permanent in 1975. And now we battle obesity in children and almost 40 million children are fed at school. But "food insecurity" apparently has increased, not decreased.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_meal_programs_in_the_United_States

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/child-nutrition-programs/national-school-lunch-program.aspx

https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/SNDA-IV_Findings_0.pdf