Data & Research

SNACS-II studied child care providers who participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. This study found that these providers serve healthy meals and snacks to the children in their care. Children have better overall diets on days when they are in child care than on days when they are not.
 

This report, in the WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study 2 (WIC ITFPS-2)/ “Feeding My Baby” Study analyzes the long-term impact of the USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) by gathering information on caregivers and children over the first nine years of the child's life after enrollment in WIC, regardless of their continued participation in the program.

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.

The Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 requires federal agencies, like FNS, to give Congress information about payment errors for federal programs, like CACFP. FNS planned this study to estimate payment errors in CACFP child care centers. However, after completing the study, FNS found an error in the method used to estimate nationwide findings from the study data. Because of the error, FNS is not publishing the full study, and will instead present key findings that relate to broad trends instead of specific estimates.

We explored the feasibility of using existing data from state monitoring reviews – a process designed to assess operations and provide real-time technical assistance to family day care homes operating CACFP – to estimate the rate of improper payments in those operations. This study found that flexibility in these reviews and the information they report across states, while beneficial for their main purpose, made the resulting data unusable for estimating a national improper payment rate.

This report responds to the 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 Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program aims to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among students in the nation’s poorest elementary schools by providing free fresh fruits and vegetables to students outside of regular school meals. The results presented in this interim report, for the 2010-2011 school year, focus on the total quantity of fruits and vegetables consumed and total energy intake (also referred to as total caloric intake), allowing the assessment of whether any additional fruit and vegetable consumption was in addition to or in place of other foods consumed.

The assessment provides a national estimate of the share of CACFP participating family daycare homes that are approved for an incorrect level of per meal reimbursement, or reimbursement "tier," for their circumstances. Tiering errors result in improper payments because misclassified family daycare homes do not receive the appropriate level of reimbursement for the meals and snacks provided to the children. The assessment also estimates the dollar amount of improper payments attributable to family daycare home tiering errors.

This is the sixth in a series of annual reports that examines the administrative accuracy of eligibility determinations and benefit issuance for free or reduced-price meals in the National School Lunch Program. About 98 percent of students submitting applications for meal benefits in school year 2009/10 were certified for the correct level of meal benefits, based on information in the application files. This was comparable to school year 2008/09.