National School Lunch Program — CFDA 10.555 obligations

What $157.26 billion on 726 awards means

Assistance listing 10.555 is titled NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM in the USAspending.gov files this site indexes. The obligation total on that code is $157,256,775,892.61. An obligation is a recorded federal commitment on an award. It is not an outlay. Treating $157,256,775,892.61 as cash already paid for cafeteria meals mixes two series. SpendingVault keeps the label as obligations.

726 awards sit under that dollar book. Dividing $157,256,775,892.61 by 726 produces a mean near $217 million per award record. That quotient is derived from the two packet totals. It is not a typical per-meal reimbursement and not a per-student subsidy. School-lunch dollars often sit on state-agency assistance actions, which is why a modest record count can carry $157,256,775,892.61.

The 75 recipients in the extract are organizational recipients stored on those award rows, not a count of students. 56 states appear in the place-of-performance coding. None of those volume stats converts the dollar total into meals served.

75 recipients across 56 states

CFDA 10.555 lists 75 recipients and 56 states against 726 awards. Recipient count is not unique pupils. It is how many organizational recipients the assistance extract stores for this listing. A state education or agriculture agency can appear on multiple awards; 75 is not a headcount of school districts. The 56-state span is a coded-jurisdiction count, not a cafeteria map.

Because 726 awards are few relative to the dollar total, a handful of large state actions can move $157,256,775,892.61 without a matching jump in the 75-recipient count. Extra modifications can lift award volume while dollars barely move. The school-lunch hub keeps dollars, awards, recipients, and states visible so one statistic is not inferred from another.

Obligations versus meal reimbursements

USAspending.gov publishes obligations on assistance awards. The $157,256,775,892.61 figure for CFDA 10.555 can include commitments that will disburse later. USDA FNS meal-count tables and a single fiscal year’s child-nutrition appropriation are different publications. This page does not translate the obligation total into those series.

If a number you expected is missing, the usual cause is a different reporting concept. Start from the obligation definition, then open the 10.555 program page. Do not stretch 726 awards or 75 recipients to cover every nutrition dollar that touches a school.

What the 10.555 tables omit

The National School Lunch Program hub lists award-backed obligations from USAspending.gov. It is not a student roster, not a meal-count file, and not a menu. Series that never appear as assistance awards will not show up in the $157,256,775,892.61. That omission is definitional rather than a gap in the 726 award rows.

Place-of-performance on 56 states is a coding field. A statewide grantee coded to one cell can dominate geography while kitchens sit in many districts. Read the program page before any state split.

How to cite CFDA 10.555

A complete citation is $157,256,775,892.61 in obligations for CFDA 10.555, covering 726 awards, 75 recipients, and 56 states, drawn from USAspending.gov assistance awards on SpendingVault. Name the series as obligations. If the question is concentration rather than dollars, lead with 726 awards and 75 recipients, then the dollar total.

Start with the National School Lunch Program page, then the all-programs index. Agency pages show awarding organizations; they do not replace this listing’s obligation total. Nothing here is a meal-pattern instruction.

A worked reading of the 10.555 extract

Start from the four packet facts: $157,256,775,892.61, 726 awards, 75 recipients, and 56 states under CFDA 10.555. The mean near $217 million is a quotient from a modest award count, not a per-meal rate. If a later USAspending.gov file adds a few large state actions, dollars can jump while 75 recipients barely move. If modifications proliferate, 726 can rise while the dollar book stays close to $157,256,775,892.61.

Nothing in the extract splits lunches from related child-nutrition accounts, or cash reimbursements from commodity support. Those cuts live in USDA FNS publications. Treat CFDA 10.555 as an assistance-listing tag on USAspending.gov award files. Open the National School Lunch Program page, then the all-programs index, for a same-series ranking. Cite 726 awards and 75 recipients next to the dollars.

Questions

How much is obligated under the National School Lunch Program?

USAspending.gov assistance awards indexed on SpendingVault show $157,256,775,892.61 in obligations for CFDA 10.555. That sum is an obligation total, not a Treasury outlay total and not a count of lunches served. The same extract lists 726 awards, 75 recipients, and 56 states.

Why does CFDA 10.555 have only 726 awards?

The indexed award count is 726. School-lunch dollars often sit on a relatively small number of large state-agency assistance actions, which is why $157,256,775,892.61 can coexist with a modest record count. The 726 figure is a file statistic, not a count of schools or students. 75 organizational recipients are stored on those rows.

Does the school-lunch total include money already paid to cafeterias?

Not as a cash-paid sum. USAspending reports obligations—commitments to pay—rather than outlays. The $157,256,775,892.61 figure can include amounts that will disburse later. The 726-award count is a record tally, not a count of meal reimbursements posted to districts. Cite CFDA 10.555 with the obligation total from USAspending.gov assistance awards, not an outlay series.

How many states appear on CFDA 10.555?

The extract codes 56 states for the National School Lunch Program. That count is place-of-performance geography in USAspending.gov assistance files, not a map of every kitchen. Those rows still sit under the $157,256,775,892.61 obligation total and the 75-recipient count. Cite CFDA 10.555 with the obligation total from USAspending.gov assistance awards, not an outlay series.