Child Nutrition Programs

GAO investigated the effects of budget cuts proposed by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to several child nutrition programs, focusing on three programs which share certain objectives: the promotion of child health, the consumption of agricultural commodities, and income support. USDA can only estimate the impact of the cuts, but evaluation techniques are being improved to measure the impact on needy participants. Although GAO has long recommended evaluation of the child nutrition programs, USDA has not yet done so. USDA now plans to assess the programs' impact on participants' health and nutrient intake and to determine whether benefit levels meet current needs. However, some beneficiaries of the lunch program will be eliminated, farm sales of agricultural products will decline slightly from these cuts, and some needy families will face increased children's lunch costs. The reduction of the summer feeding and milk programs was generated by charges of fraud and overlap with other programs, but most participation is confined to one program. A further effect of the anticipated cuts will be to lower farm milk prices slightly, but all the cuts have been planned without adequate data and the actual impact on farmers and program recipients may be quite different. Congress should require the Secretary of Agriculture to evaluate the child nutrition programs and their relationship to other federal feeding programs as to how well they meet their legislative goals.