Data & Research
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted school meal operations and has contributed to lasting supply chain issues affecting the cost and availability of food and labor. The School Food Authority Survey II on Supply Chain Disruption and Student Participation was administered to all SFAs operating child nutrition programs in schools to gather information on the impacts of continued supply chain disruptions and the return to standard operations during SY 2022–23.
USDA has established procedures to annually collect and publish the paid lunch prices charged by school food authorities.
This data collection fulfills states’ reporting requirements and describes trends in program participation during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of an ongoing study series examining CN program operations, repurposed to collect waiver reports from all states.
The School Lunch Eligible Non-Participants Study, conducted for USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, was designed to determine "why children eligible to participate for free and reduced-price meals do not apply or participate" in school nutrition programs.
The study examined the costs charged to SFAs (reported costs), as well as those costs incurred by the school district in support of SFA operations, but not charged to the SFA (unreported costs). Together, the reported costs and the unreported costs are the full cost of meal production.
Purpose of this report is to manage the Child Nutrition programs effectively, FNS collects and analyzes information from annual State-level management reports.