School Lunch and Breakfast Programs

By Randy Paul of Beautiful Horizons

Today I had a medical procedure performed in the morning that necessitated my fasting from Sunday night at 9 p.m. until after the procedure at about 10:30 Tuesday morning. Instead of taking a day off yesterday, I decided to go to work as I figured it would keep my mind off of hunger.

Hah! Fat chance that! I was alright at work until about noon. I filled myself with fluids until I had to make the long walk to down the hallway that I refer to as the "Bladder Causeway" that leads to the bathroom. About 2 p.m. I was getting cranky. My usual cheery self was snapping at people, I found that I couldn't concentrate as well as normal and those trips up and down the stairs that I make with elan between the two floors my employer takes up were being punctuated with Lurch-like sighs and significantly slower ascents. The bagel I had to break my fast was positively ambrosial.

I can only imagine then, how difficult it must have been for needy children to have accomplished much of anything before the advent of both the National School Lunch Act, and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, which provided for subsidized lunches and breakfasts, respectively, for needy children. The former was signed into law by Harry Truman and the latter by Lyndon Johnson. Let's hope their need to exist will someday disappear.