As roughly 7.3 million students in rural school districts head back to school this fall, they remain largely unaware that the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) is due to expire on September 30, 2024 (Hartman et al., 2023). Enacted on December 20, 2018, and temporarily renewed in September 2023, this critical piece of legislation…

This report illustrates the statewide implementation and effectiveness of school breakfast in Ohio. In the 2024-2025 school year, approximately 94% of Ohio schools with USDA nutrition programs serve breakfast. In the 2023-2024 school year, 27.2% of enrolled children participated in the School Breakfast Program and 54.5% participated in the…

The federal government has prescribed nutritional requirements for school meals since the authorization of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in 1946. Such requirements have changed throughout the course of history. Current law requires the Secretary of Agriculture to prescribe "minimum nutritional requirements" based on…

Free school meal access has become increasingly intertwined with federal social safety net programs--including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)--to reduce duplicative paperwork for schools. The changes to SNAP that House Republicans have proposed would have downstream effects on free school meal access. The proposed changes to…

A program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Team Nutrition Training Grants have two objectives: to develop the knowledge and skills of School Nutrition Managers such that they are able (1) to assist students participating in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program in making…

The federal government has prescribed nutritional requirements for school meals since the authorization of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in 1946. Such requirements have changed throughout the course of history. Current law requires the Secretary of Agriculture to prescribe "minimum nutritional requirements" based on…

Interventions targeting school meals have been used to combat obesity in rural youth. Parents play a powerful role in childhood nutrition; however, we know little about parents' perceptions of school meal programs. This study aimed to understand parents' perceptions of school meal programs. Surveys were administered to middle school parents (n =…

This report summarizes findings from the School Meals Operations Study (SMO), part of an ongoing series to assess school meal operations on a school year (SY) basis. This volume of the study covers July 2021 through the end of September 2022 and includes SY 2021-2022. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, the Families First Coronavirus…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released an update to the nutrition standards schools must meet in the breakfasts and lunches served to more than 30 million children. The last time USDA fully updated school meal standards was in 2012. Research on the impact of those changes found that the nutritional quality of school meals…

House Republicans have passed their version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which now goes to the Senate for consideration. The goal is to pass the bill by July, though final content and timeline are subject to change. The bill puts forth several changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aimed at reducing federal spending…

On July 23, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed a new rule that will restrict eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. On its own, the proposal will cut access to food assistance for about 3.1 million low income Americans, which will have significant consequences for individuals and families struggling…

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…

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation's second-largest food and nutrition assistance program, providing billions of meals to tens of millions of children and adolescents each year. USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) periodically reports on NSLP policies and program operations, often after major changes to the program's rules…

The Utah State Board of Education Child Nutrition Programs (CNP) administers several federal food programs and sub programs, appropriated under United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and administered by Food and Nutrition Services (FNS). The federal food programs are primarily designed to ensure sponsors have the necessary knowledge and…

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,…