The Act was created as a result of the "years of cumulative successful experience under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to help meet the nutritional needs of children."
According to the CDC, a poor diet can lead to energy imbalance (e.g., eating more calories than one expends through physical activity) and can increase one’s risk for overweight and obesity.
In the long run if children do suffer from lack of nutrients it will not only impede brain growth but affect their ability to learn as well (Berger, 172).
They are looking forward to developing wellness policies that will charge local school districts with setting targets for nutrition education (Cooper, 84).
Among other things, this law significantly expanded the availability of federal subsidies (through the school lunch program and the CACFP) for snacks served in after-school programs and authorized demonstration projects providing free breakfasts for elementary school children without regard to family income.
[1] In the fall of 2009 the Institute of Medicine recommended updates and revisions to the school lunch and breakfast programs, at the request of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
To meet its task, the IOM committee also reviewed and assessed the food and nutritional needs of school-aged children in the United States using the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans set by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and USDA, as well as the IOM’s Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI).