Richmond Welfare Rights Organization v. Woodrow W. Snodgrass

United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals:

These consolidated appeals concern the National School Lunch Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1751 et seq. (Act). We reverse that portion of the district court’s partial summary judgment which held that a school district participating in a federal subsidy program under the Act must supply a free or reduced price lunch (free lunch) to each eligible child within the district and we affirm, though on different grounds, that portion which denied plaintiffs’ petition for an order prohibiting defendants from terminating participation under the Act and requiring expanded participation. We enjoin termination of defendants’ present lunch program until final determination of plaintiffs’ claim under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Defendant Richmond Unified School District (District) had for a number of years administered a school lunch program under the Act in all twelve of its secondary schools. In expanding to elementary schools, the District incorporated only six of its forty-nine elementary schools in the program. All children attending those six schools received free lunches without regard to their eligibility under the Act. Those six schools had…