Schools and educational leaders play critical roles in child nutrition. Recent legislation has focused attention on nutrient levels from meals consumed in schools. The purpose of this study was to compare school and packed lunches for nutritional profiles for preschoolers in New Jersey public school settings. This study also looked at nutrient…

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…

BACKGROUND: The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) summer meal programs are designed to provide meals at no cost while school is out of session. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several regulatory waivers were enacted to facilitate meal distribution. The aim of this study was to assess the rates of meal distribution before and after these…

Background: The public health policies and school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have created disruptions in school meal programs. Research is needed to understand the changes in school food service revenue before and during the initial COVID-19-related school shutdowns. Methods: A longitudinal cohort study examining federal and…

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…

State law requires the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to annually report to the Legislature the number of schools participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The report must identify barriers to participation and make recommendations to increase participation. The CEP…

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to school meal programs, putting children and adolescents at greater risk for food and nutrition insecurity. In response, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) waived restrictions on where free meal sites (FMS) operating through its summer meal programs could locate. This study assesses whether…

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: Participation in the US Department of Agriculture's summer meals program is consistently lower compared to National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation, even though the programs target the same population of children. The purpose of this study was to elucidate reasons for participation and nonparticipation in the summer meals…

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allows high-poverty schools to offer free meals to all students regardless of household income. Conceptualizing universal meal provision as a strategy to alleviate stigma associated with school meals, we hypothesize that CEP implementation reduces the incidence of suspensions, particularly for students…

Alternative poverty measures have been proposed in response to the emerging insufficiencies of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) eligibility data. The analysis presented here involves seven poverty measures. Using outcome measures as a yardstick, we can assess how poverty measures explain these outcomes and note variations between…

Alternative poverty measures have been proposed in response to the emerging insufficiencies of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) eligibility data. The analysis presented here involves seven poverty measures. Using outcome measures as a yardstick, we can assess how poverty measures explain these outcomes and note variations between…

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the paper draws on conceptions of culinary capital and socialisation to explore children's experiences of mealtime in one academy school. In this paper, the author argues how 'healthy eating' interventions have led to the neglect of the social significance of dining together. The paper highlights how children's…

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…

Purpose/Objectives: Individuals in rural areas experience higher food insecurity. The School Breakfast Program (SBP) and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) reduce food insecurity. Yet, SBP participation remains lower than NSLP participation. This study aimed to examine differences in parental perception relative to the NSLP and the SBP in…