(a)
Establishment; authorization of appropriations
There is hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to enable the Secretary to carry out a program to assist the States and the Department of Defense through grants-in-aid and other means to initiate, maintain, or expand nonprofit breakfast programs in all schools which make application for assistance and agree to carry out a nonprofit breakfast program in accordance with this chapter. Appropriations and expenditures for this chapter shall be considered Health and Human Services functions for budget purposes rather than functions of Agriculture.
(c)
Disbursement of apportioned funds by State; preference for schools in poor economic areas, for students traveling long distances daily, and for schools for improvement of nutrition and dietary practices of children of working mothers and from low-income families
Funds apportioned and paid to any State for the purpose of this section shall be disbursed by the State educational agency to schools selected by the State educational agency to assist such schools in operating a breakfast program and for the purpose of subsection (d) of this section. Disbursement to schools shall be made at such rates per meal or on such other basis as the Secretary shall prescribe. In selecting schools for participation, the State educational agency shall, to the extent practicable, give first consideration to those schools drawing attendance from areas in which poor economic conditions exist, to those schools in which a substantial proportion of the children enrolled must travel long distances daily, and to those schools in which there is a special need for improving the nutrition and dietary practices of children of working mothers and children from low-income families. Breakfast assistance disbursements to schools under this section may be made in advance or by way of reimbursement in accordance with procedures prescribed by the Secretary.
(d)
Severe need assistance
(1)
In general
Each State educational agency shall provide additional assistance to schools in severe need, which shall include only those schools (having a breakfast program or desiring to initiate a breakfast program) in which—
(A)
during the most recent second preceding school year for which lunches were served, 40 percent or more of the lunches served to students at the school were served free or at a reduced price; or
(B)
in the case of a school in which lunches were not served during the most recent second preceding school year, the Secretary otherwise determines that the requirements of subparagraph (A) would have been met.
(2)
Additional assistance
A school, on the submission of appropriate documentation about the need circumstances in that school and the eligibility of the school for additional assistance, shall be entitled to receive the meal reimbursement rate specified in subsection (b)(2) of this section.