During the Great Depression, farmers found themselves with crops that they were unable to sell while families struggled to afford school lunch for their children. To address this problem, Congress included a provision in the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935 that allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to buy surplus crops to feed school children whose families could not afford to pay for their lunch.
During the first year of using surplus commodities for school meals, 550 children at 13 different schools received free meals in Hillsborough County alone. By 1940, roughly 100,000 school children in Florida from 1,000 different schools were expected to receive free meals using surplus commodities. This was welcome news for children in households of color, who were paid lower wages and faced higher unemployment and poverty rates than other households in 1940 due to racism.
Nationwide, by the 1941-42 school year, schools in the United States received over $21 million in food under the surplus commodities program.