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Basic page Study Series: School Meal Program Operations

We have studied school meal program operations for a long time. You can access published reports that go back to school year 1988-89. Each study in this series focuses on topics that are important to program operations at the time. Sometimes the studies also collect information about other child nutrition programs, like the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program.

03/24/2026
Resource | Research and Data School Meal Program Operations, School Year 2022-23

We regularly collect information about the school meal programs and how they operate from the people who know best – the state agencies that oversee the programs in each state and territory and the school food authorities that manage the programs locally in one or more schools. 

03/24/2026
Resource | Research and Data FY 2024 SNAP Recertification Processing Timeliness

Fiscal year 2024 SNAP recertification processing timeliness rates. 

03/12/2026
Resource | Research and Data FY 2024 SNAP Application Processing Timeliness

Fiscal year 2024 SNAP application processing timeliness rates. 

03/12/2026
Resource | Research and Data Evaluation of the Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives Project, Fiscal Years 2021, 2022, and 2023

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives projects to develop and test methods to increase the purchase and consumption of fluid milk of SNAP households by providing incentives at the point of purchase. The Act requires biennial reporting on the status of projects and completed evaluations. The findings for the FY 2020 award were presented in the first report to Congress. This second report presents findings from the FY 2021, FY 2022 and FY 2023 pilot projects.
 

01/15/2026
Basic page Report Series - Benefit Redemption Patterns in SNAP

We periodically examine SNAP benefit redemption patterns related to the timing, number, and dollar amount of transactions and the rate at which households spend down and exhaust their monthly benefits. These studies also report on the number of transactions made and the share of benefits redeemed at various types of stores.  

05/13/2025
Resource | Research and Data Characteristics of SNAP Households: Fiscal Year 2023

We release annual reports describing the persons and households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This report uses the fiscal year 2023 SNAP Quality Control data to examine the demographic characteristics and economic circumstances of SNAP households at the national and state level.

05/02/2025
Basic page Report Series - WIC & FMNP Modernization Evaluation

The WIC and FMNP Modernization Evaluation provides a comprehensive look at how we are working with WIC state agencies, local agencies, and other partners to modernize WIC and the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program. 

04/21/2025
Resource | Research and Data Child Nutrition Program Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic - July 2021 through September 2022

This data collection fulfills states' reporting requirements and describes trends in program participation during the COVID-19 pandemic from July 2021 through September 2022. It is part of an ongoing study series examining child nutrition program operations, repurposed to collect waiver usage and trends in program participation and operations during the pandemic.

03/18/2025
Resource | Research and Data Reaching Those in Need: Estimates of State SNAP Participation Rates in 2022

This report is the latest in a series on states’ SNAP participation rates, which are estimated percentages of people who are eligible for SNAP who participate in the program in each state. This report presents rates for fiscal year 2022 and revised rates for pre-pandemic FY 2020.

02/20/2025
Page updated: September 16, 2025