Nutrition/quality dispairity

The school meal programs are under heavy budget constraints. Federal funding is largely absent, except through funds tied to nutrition mandates. The National Student Lunch Program allocates some funds based on the level of students who meet the requirements for free or reduced meal plans and provides some surplus commodities. North Carolina only provides the NC standards for public schools, which is an unfunded mandate. Notwithstanding these inputs, the school meal programs must operate independently. This creates a squeeze between meeting nutrition standards and provide food of a decent quality. Also, the cafeteria workers wages are set against quality food for the children. The incentives created by nutrition policy works to undermine the health of the whole cafeteria system in many ways. While it is difficult, or impossible, to provide a remedy by changing parts of the system, decentralization in the food system is a solution which can be comprehended by the society which is actually engaging with these school meal programs.