BACKGROUND: Participation in the US Department of Agriculture's summer meals program is consistently lower compared to National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation, even though the programs target the same population of children. The purpose of this study was to elucidate reasons for participation and nonparticipation in the summer meals…

Background: The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is a federally funded program that serves free, nutritious meals during the summer months. In 2019, 6 federal waivers that previously helped sponsors serve meals were rescinded. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to assess the impact of the waiver rescission on the experiences of SFSP…

Background: The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provides free and nutritious meals to children under age 18 during out-of-school times. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland sponsors served over 9.5 million meals to children through an expanded version of the SFSP. This study aimed to explore and compare the factors that enabled 2 SFSP…

This report starts with an overview of child nutrition programs' funding structure and then provides detail on each program, including a discussion of how they are administered, eligibility rules for institutions and participants, nutritional and other program requirements, and recent policy changes. Changes to child nutrition programs that have…

Financial support provided by the Legislature helps to ensure Washington children have access to healthy school meals. In fiscal year 2022, the Legislature provided $11.5 million to eliminate the co-pay for reduced-price meals, support summer meal programs, provide school districts with financial support for breakfast meal service, and provide…

Even before the COVID-19 crisis and its deep economic effects, over a million New Yorkers struggled with food insecurity--particularly in low-income communities of color. Because many families with children rely on meal programs provided to students during the school year, rates of food insecurity tend to increase sharply during the summer months.…

The child nutrition programs support meals and snacks served to children in schools, child care, summer programs, and other institutional settings in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. This report starts with an overview of child nutrition programs' funding structure and then provides detail on each program,…

FNS Research Corner provides a continuing series to summarize recently completed and current research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the area of Child Nutrition Programs (CNPs). Summaries of recently completed research projects and in-progress research are provided in this article.