This brief, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, examines how rural families use four of the major federal child nutrition programs. It finds that 29 percent of rural families with children participate but that there are barriers to these nutrition programs, such as the lack of public transportation and high operating costs for rural schools…

The School Breakfast Program supplies federal funds to schools and residential child care institutions that provide breakfasts to children. This status report compares the performance of each state to the performance of other states and of the nation as a whole in school breakfast participation. The first section examines overall outcomes, taking…