The primary goal of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is to provide nutritious meals to children in low-income areas when school is not in session. This report presents the findings of the SFSP Implementation Study, a descriptive study of the operations of the SFSP at the state and local levels and how SFSP staff feel the program could be improved. The report's introductory chapter describes the SFSP program and its history, the study objectives and research questions, the study design and data sources, and the plan of the report. Chapter 2 presents a statistical portrait of the SFSP in 2001 that covers the characteristics of the state agencies, sponsors, and sites that operated the program. The chapter also describes the SFSP participants and discusses factors that may affect their participation. Each of the next three chapters addresses one of three research questions. Chapter 3 describes how the program was administered at the state, sponsor, and site levels, as well as areas of program operations that staff believed could be improved. Chapter 4 discusses participation and outreach, including staff views on barriers to participation, the extent of outreach efforts, and the reasons why sponsors left the program. Chapter 5 describes the meals served at the SFSP, their nutrient content, and the extent of plate waste. Finally Chapter 6 summarizes the findings and considers issues for the future. Among the findings are the following: (1) around 70 percent of sponsors expected that SFSP reimbursements would not cover all their costs; (2) all state agencies reported conducting outreach to attract new participants; (3) staff at all levels most frequently cited lack of transportation as a barrier to children's participation; (4) on average, SFSP meals provided a least one-quarter of the Recommended Daily Allowances for most key nutrients at breakfast, and at least one-third for energy and key nutrients at lunch and supper; and (5) children wasted an average of about one-third of the calories and nutrients they were served. (Contains 40 references.) (HTH)