The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers the school meal programs that provide nutritious, lowcost meals to about 30 million children each day, according to USDA fiscal year 2019 data. School food authorities participating in the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program must comply…

Background: Incorporating scratch-cooked, organic, and locally grown foods into school meal programs can enhance meal quality and support local food systems. Methods: 430 California school food authorities were surveyed to (1) evaluate their use of scratch-cooked, organic, and locally grown foods in their programs; (2) identify demographic and…

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…

Methods: A web-based survey platform was used to disseminate an online survey to CNP managers via email. A previously validated survey was used consisting of Likert-type scales, multiple choice, and an open-ended question. Descriptive statistics were used for each question, obtaining response numbers and percentages. Analysis of variance…

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…

Obesity influences many adolescents, and a potential setting that can help with this health concern is schools. Schools can help raise awareness of adolescent obesity and promote healthier eating habits among adolescents. Therefore, researchers must determine if school food programs influence high school adolescents' behavior regarding the…

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…

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…

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,…

Big corporations and food service companies are making millions of dollars from public school meal programs, often to the detriment of students' health. Jennifer Gaddis explains how government policies and funding shortfalls have affected what is served is school cafeterias. Common cost-cutting measures include serving cheap and easy-to-prepare…

Colorado's Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) program provides free breakfast and lunch to all students, regardless of economic background, and aims to strengthen farm-to-school systems and school food service workers' pay. After unexpected increases in student participation, the program faced a significant budget shortfall that raised warning…

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.

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in school closures and required school nutrition directors to shift their methods of executing the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The procurement of items, the composition of meals, and meal delivery were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.…

Purpose/Objective: To describe the perceived benefits and barriers to move beyond Community Eligibility Provisions (CEP) and initiating Universal Free Meals (UFM) in all districts across the U.S. that choose to participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP). Methods: Cross-sectional survey conducted in…

Purpose/Objectives: The average Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI) score for children 2-17 years is 53.9/100, which needs improvement. HEI scores for dietary quality (DQ) directly and positively impact children's health, academic performance, and their future. Because school Child Nutrition Programs impact a large proportion of U.S. children, it is…