School Nutrition Services (SNS) Research

Publication: Nutrients

Date Published: June 2024

Reference: 

Zuercher, M. D., Orta-Aleman, D., Cohen, J. F. W., Hecht, C. A., Hecht, K., Polacsek, M., Patel, A. I., Ritchie, L. D., & Gosliner, W. (2024). 
The Benefits and Challenges of Providing School Meals during the First Year of California’s Universal School Meal Policy as Reported by School Foodservice Professionals. Nutrients, 16(12), 1812. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16121812

Key Takeaways: The study evaluated the challenges that facilitators face with school food authorities (SFA) when it comes to universal school meals (USM) in California in 2022 and 2023, in the inaugural year. Although there are many benefits, such as increased meal participation and revenues, as well as reduced debts in meals, and stigma. However, SFAs with fewer students eligible for free and reduced price meals lead to more administrative burden, while SFAs with larger eligible students with free and reduced price meals lead to increased revenues, staff salaries, and improvement in meal quality.

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