It has been 30 years since China began developing a school lunch system in the 1980s. The work went through 3 main development stages: 1. Conducting public information campaigns and opinion surveys in various regions in the 1980s. 2. in the 1990s, government-led, comprehensive demonstration activities. 3. From 2000 till now, the school lunch system has been set up. In 2001, China issued a city-centered guidance document on the promotion of the school lunch system. In 2011, China issued a village-centered opinions document on the improvement of nutrition programs for rural compulsory education students, which formally marked the establishment of the school lunch system in China. Under these policies of the government, the school lunch system was clearly acknowledged as a project for school education and was then managed by the cooperation of several governmental organizations. This paper discusses the development of the school lunch system in China, with a particular focus on the series of in-depth final policies drawn up by the central government after 1990, summarizing and analyzing the characteristics of the Chinese school lunch system, and the acts and ordinances providing the legal basis of the relevant policies.