This study is the first nationally representative, comprehensive assessment of the school meal programs since the updated nutrition standards for school meals were phased in beginning School Year 2012-2013. A study methodology report that describes the study design, sampling and data collection and a summary report that provides a brief overview of the study and key findings from the various reports are also available.

The Farm to School Census and Comprehensive Review includes the 2019 Farm to School Census; a descriptive review of the USDA Farm to School grant program; a review of published research on farm to school since 2010; and a set of interviews with school food distributors. 

This report summarizes the results of the school year 2007-08 application verification process for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. 

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004  permits direct verification of school meal applications and requires FNS to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of direct verification by school districts.

This report responds to the legislative requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Under direct certification, children are determined eligible for free school meals without the need for household applications by using data from other means-tested programs. 

The purpose of this pilot was to test possible methods that could lead to valid estimations of the number of meals served by family day care homes. The estimated number of meals served can be used to develop estimates of over- and under-counts of meal claims that result in erroneous payments.

The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 requires all federal agencies to calculate the amount of erroneous payments in federal programs and to periodically conduct detailed assessments of vulnerable program components. This is the third wave of a program assessment of the Family Day Care Home component of USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program. 

FNS proposed to select a random sample of sponsoring organizations and, from each, use a random selection of the sponsor’s monitoring visits of family day care homes. Using these data, FNS would compare the number of meals claimed with the number of children observed at the time of the visit.