A number of criticisms of the National School Lunch Program are substantiated by a structural analysis within the general context of national child nutrition needs. The National School Lunch Program has been criticized principally on the ground of inadequate coverage of child nutrition needs, particularly for poor children. For the year 1968, access to the school lunch program was available in 71,983 out of approximately 119,000 schools. However, only approximately 18.5 out of approximately 55.8 million children, aged five to 18, participated in the program. Thus, the program actually reached only about 33 percent of the nation's school age children. Only 2,409,680 out of 8,579,392 poor school-age children were served. The program does not favor the requirements of the needy. However, for the 1968 level of government appropriations to the school meal programs, more unmet child nutrition needs could be filled by, at the least, guaranteeing a free meal to all poverty children and raising prices for non-poverty children in schools that currently have a meal program. (Author/JM)