School meal programs in the United States
Costs and funding
Budget trends suggest that meal production costs over the last five years have been increasing faster than revenues. A report by the USDA's Economic Research Service in July 2008 suggested: "Cost pressures may be a barrier to improving school menus in some cases. The nationally representative School Lunch and Breakfast Cost Study II found that while the mean reported cost of producing lunch during 2005–06 was below the reimbursement rate, about one in four school districts reported costs above the reimbursement rate." It continued, "Further, the mean full cost of producing a lunch was higher than the reimbursement rate."
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