Background: School meals were served free of charge to all public school students in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some students still did not participate. Methods: In this mixed-methods study, surveys and interviews were conducted with food service directors (FSDs) from California (n = 556 surveys; n = 29 interviews) and…

Over the last decade, more and more schools have adopted Universal Free Meals (UFM), a program that provides meals free of charge to all students, regardless of household income. Recent research finds UFM increases participation in school meals, improves test scores, and reduces incidences of bad behavior. Additionally, advocates cite stigma…

The issue of school food and its role in the learning environment has been overlooked by educators, education researchers, and policy makers. This study uses observations and interviews in three high-poverty, urban schools to investigate how participants experience school food policy in their daily lives. Participants at all three schools believed…

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…

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…

Background: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA) directed the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to revise school meal standards to increase healthy food offerings. A critical stakeholder in the implementation of standards is Food Service Directors (FSDs). We sought to examine FSDs' perspectives on revised school meal standards to…

This report investigates three important aspects of National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) participation using recently collected data on a large, nationally representative sample of students certified for free and reduced-price meals during the 2005-2006 school year. First, we examine the factors that influence…

A survey of students' and principals' reactions to the Minneapolis public school lunch program is described, and the results and comments are presented. Meals are prepared on site at ten secondary schools, and prepacked at the nutrition center and reheated before service at other schools. Questionnaires were completed by 1,582 students in 25…

This report presents the findings from the "Nutrition Education in Public Schools, K-12" survey that was designed to provide data on the status of nutrition education in U.S. public schools. Questionnaires were sent to 1,000 school principals of a nationally representative sample of U.S. elementary, middle, and high schools. The survey…

In 2005 the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to gather evidence on local authority (LA) and school approaches to nutrition in schools in order to inform the work of the WLGA Schools Food Task and Finish Group. This report presents the findings of that research.…

To find major problems with the National School Lunch Program, a study was conducted with 1,015 students, their parents, and 16 school lunch supervisors in 18 Washington school districts. When interviewed, only 2% of the students said the lunch program did not need any changes. The needed changes most often mentioned were for "different kinds…