While federally subsidized school lunches have a negligible impact on health, they have a huge payoff for academic achievement.

Peter Hinrichs of Georgetown University wanted to know if school lunch programs have improved health statistics over the years. He thought the best way to go about it was by examining the records of military inductees going all the way back to World War II, looking at height, weight, overall health, and whether a person experiences health limitations. Most inductees are around 18 or just out of school.

Despite access to free lunch programs through public schools, he found no evidence that recipients of subsidized school lunches are healthier than non-recipients by the time they reach adulthood.

However, he found a positive effect for educational attainment. Increasing student exposure to the free lunch program by 10 percent added about a year of schooling for women and a full year for men. In the 2009-10 school year, 293,000 students, or 36 percent of Minnesota’s 823,000 students, qualified for the free or reduced school lunch program.

The study supports the idea that if our society has the ability to help our fellow men and women – and their children – then it is in our best interest to do so. Left on their own, these students would fall behind their peers and have less of an incentive to stay in school, thus they would be more likely to drop out, earn less money and not be prepared to fully contribute to the workforce. For the price of a lunch, we can help entire generations of Minnesotans achieve their dreams and propel this country into the 21st century. This is the heart of progressive thought.

MN2020