The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas. CEP allows the nation's highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. Instead, schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed…

The federal child nutrition programs provide assistance to schools and other institutions in the form of cash, commodity food, and administrative support (such as technical assistance and administrative funding) based on the provision of meals and snacks to children. The programs provide financial support and/or foods to the institutions that…

Purpose/Objectives: This study assessed current practices and attitudes of school nutrition program (SNP) management staff regarding free and reduced-price (F-RP) meal application and verification in SNPs. Methods: Stratified, randomly selected 1,500 SNP management staff in 14 states received a link to an online questionnaire and/or a printed…

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" Nelson Mandela (Strauss, 2013). Nelson Mandela's statement provides the basis for this article. Education provides a means of escaping the consequences of poverty. Children who live at or below the poverty level must overcome the detrimental effects of poverty…

Although education stakeholders agreed on achieving Education for All by 2015, high wastage rates in developing countries has remained a major concern. In Kenya, data shows that more than one million primary age children are still out school. In many countries, school feeding programmes has been used as one of the interventions to promote…

"A State Policy Landscape: K12 Climate Action" looks at key areas where states have policies that can support schools in moving toward climate action. This report highlights opportunities for growth by focusing on state-level policy in the following focus areas: (1) mitigation; (2) adaptation; and (3) education. In this report, the…

Background: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA) directed the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to revise school meal standards. Students are most affected by efforts to improve the school food environment; yet, few studies directly include students. This study examined high school students' experiences of school meal reform to gain…

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a breathtaking amount of change to the nation's schools in a matter of weeks. On March 11, Seattle Public Schools was the first major district to close schools. The next day, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the first statewide school closure order effective March 17, beginning a cascade of similar orders. By…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on Latino children's health and learning. This fact sheet examines the specific impact on Latino children's well-being and ability to learn and provides steps to keep children healthy and ready for school.

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…

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exacerbated existing inequities and inadequacies across a range of social structures, including our nation's education system. The pandemic has also had a more damaging impact on communities and people of color, including many who already faced health challenges. Congress has provided significant federal…

This Quick Facts document provides a snapshot of facts about Alabama school systems and public schools; school personnel; student and educator profiles; financial data; pupil transportation; national school lunch, breakfast and after school snack programs; Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI); access to virtual learning;…

Background: Having breakfast is correlated with health and academic benefits; yet, many children do not consume breakfast, and participation in the federal School Breakfast Program remains low. The purpose of this study was to examine parent perceptions of school breakfast and identify relationships between those who consume breakfast at school…

Background: In this study, we describe state agency strategies to support weight-related policy implementation in schools, and examine the association among state support, obesity prevalence, and strength of state policies governing school nutrition and physical education. Methods: The 2012 School Health Policies and Practices Study describes…

As this paper was being written, school systems across the country were increasingly announcing plans for full or partial distance learning to respond to COVID-19, and it seems likely that more school systems may implement these plans should the pandemic surge in the fall or winter. As a result, working parents with school-age children are faced…