The US Department of Agriculture runs a large array of farm and food subsidy programs. The school lunch and breakfast programs are two of the largest, which together with related school food programs will cost federal taxpayers an estimated $35 billion in 2025. Thirty million children, about 58 percent of students in public schools, receive school…

School nutrition programs are integral to academic success. To support the whole child, teachers must appreciate what role nutrition plays in academic success. Studies of food insecurity reveal there are degrees of severity. Although the key determinate of food security is poverty, employment is not necessarily a shield. One can eat and still be…

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…

The Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program was launched as an effort to address the loss of access to free and reduced-price school meals due to widespread school closures at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools reopened in a shifting mix of fully virtual, hybrid, and in-person formats and families lacked consistent access…

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…

The next President of the United States has an enormous responsibility--and opportunity--to provide an equitable foundation for a new generation of learners. The magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated the importance of schools as community anchors that children and families rely on for much more than an education. This document…

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life for students, teachers and everyone connected to public schools. The crisis has also exposed the fragilities of the economy in meeting the basic needs of all and highlighted the importance of the public sector, of community, and of care work. Schools are key public spaces of community and care. They must be…

This paper examines poverty's impact on student physical health, socioemotional health, and the brain. Further, although children spend only 20 percent of their time in school, this paper examines the school's role in student development, as well as proposes effective policies and programs that go beyond the classroom.

Over the past few years, several food recalls, such as for beef and peanut products, have affected schools. It is especially important that recalls affecting schools be carried out efficiently and effectively because young children have a higher risk of complications from food-borne illnesses. GAO was asked to determine how federal agencies (1)…

Discussion centers on the Federal policy of local option for school breakfast programs in New Mexico and its effect upon American Indian children. (JC)

This guide lays out the issues, objections, responses, and strategies involved with expanding the School Breakfast Program in a state or a school district. The guide describes in lay terms the particulars of the School Breakfast Program, and outlines successful state and local campaign strategies. It contains the following chapters: (1) The School…

In this issue of the IRCD Bulletin is reviewed the status of research relating to health, nutrition, and learning as pertaining to children from economically disadvantaged families. At present there is considered to be little hard evidence in support of the notion that children's present biological condition is correlated with their learning. The…

This paper discusses the effects of President Reagan's budget cuts on federally supported human service programs in New York. Various programs are analyzed to determine their vulnerability to budget reductions. It is suggested that employment, nutrition and health programs are most likely to be cut while education, adoption assistance, senior…

This report is the result of a 2-year study of existing day care and summer feeding programs sponsored by the USDA undertaken to provide background information, define the current status, determine restraints and make recommendations for improvement in such programs. A history of the creation of the Special Food Service Program for Children…

This document contains the following comprehensive articles which were judged to be useful to the immediate needs of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs: "Nutrition and Development: The View of the Planner," A. Berg and R. Muscat; "Criteria for Success in Applied Nutrition Programs," B. Bertlyn; "The Neglect of Nutrition and…