Objective: School summer holiday clubs in deprived areas of Wales were evaluated to examine opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity and explore delivery processes. Methods: Ten Food and Fun clubs participated in 2016. Quantitative data (child and parent surveys; N = 196, N = 84) assessed the opportunity to provide children with…

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,…

The federal government has a long history of investing in programs for feeding children, starting with federal aid for school lunch programs in the 1930s. Today, federal child nutrition programs support food served to children in schools and a variety of other institutional settings. The child nutrition programs support meals and snacks served to…

The 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. Summaries of recently completed research projects and in-progress research are provided in this article.

Many families rely on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded school lunch and breakfast programs to make the family's food budget stretch, improving their food security throughout the school year. These programs feed about 31 million students annually. During the summer where schools are not in session, food security decreases. The USDA…

This report notes that studies dating back to 1906 find that children score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do in the Spring when schools close. Summer programs that address the needs of the whole child seem to be most successful at boosting academic achievement, self-esteem, and confidence. They also motivate…

The first witness in this hearing was the Assistant Secretary for Food and Consumer Services, Department of Agriculture, who presented the Reagan Administration's 1984 budget proposals for cuts in child nutrition programs. The proposals included changes in the school lunch program, a freeze on the funding level of the WIC program, elimination of…

This booklet, which describes federal food assistance programs, is designed to help large families, families on small budgets, and elderly people on fixed incomes get more food for less money. The book is divided into four chapters: Kids, Women and Children, Families, and Senior Citizens. Each chapter describes in detail the food assistance…

Despite the importance of breakfast, summer, and after-school child nutrition programs, coverage in these programs in Massachusetts is low. This report describes the barriers facing the states School Breakfast, Summer Food Service, and After-School Snack Programs and suggests many innovative solutions and resources that program sponsors can use to…

The Special Summer Food Service Program for Children is one of several programs for the feeding of children administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). The program is designed to feed during summer vacation, children from areas having poor economic conditions or high concentrations of working mothers. It is authorized through fiscal year…

This handbook is a reference for sponsors of food service programs for children during school vacation periods. It is not applicable to academic year operations. Issues relating to planning a food service program are discussed. These include sponsor eligibility, the determination of the need of recipient children, requirements of kinds and amounts…