The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers several child nutrition programs to support food security and diet quality in the U.S. The two largest are the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), which serve free or low-cost nutritious meals to tens of millions of children and adolescents each day (hereafter “children” for brevity). Smaller programs include the Special Milk Program, which provides milk to children in schools and childcare institutions that do not participate in other Federal meal programs; the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which provides fresh fruits and vegetables to children in eligible elementary schools (typically kindergarten through grade 5); the Child and Adult Care Food Program, which primarily provides meals to children in childcare centers, family day care homes, emergency shelters, and after-school programs; and the Summer Food Service Program and NSLP and SBP’s Seamless Summer Option, which serve children in the summer months when most schools are not in session. In Federal fiscal year (FY) 2019 (October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019), before the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the NSLP and SBP together accounted for about 79 percent of USDA expenditures on its child nutrition programs. This case study provides a brief overview of the history, rules, and implementation of these two programs, summarizes research on their effectiveness, and documents ongoing implementation challenges.