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.
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.
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.
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 third annual survey of School Food Authorities found that 95 percent of SFAs faced supply-chain related challenges in school year (SY) 2023-24, but that the number of reported challenges and impacts they have on school food service have largely declined compared to SY 2022-23. This report is the third in the series and, like the others, reports findings from a 20-minute online questionnaire sent to all SFAs operating child nutrition programs in schools to gather information on the impacts of continued supply chain challenges
This report explores different approaches to reevaluating the Thrifty Food Plan, which represents a low-cost, nutritious diet comprised of foods and beverages consumed at home and is used to calculate SNAP benefit amounts.
These studies examine the policies and procedures in SNAP and the three NAP programs. The first report includes results of a survey of states regarding language access and procedures. The second is a report on case-studies of the give in-depth details of language access policies in four states. The final report examines the language access policies in the NAP programs in American Samoa, The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico.
The USDA FNS Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program awards grants annually to support schools, non-profits, Indian Tribal Organizations, state agencies, producers, and other entities who are planning, developing, and implementing farm to school programs. This report presents findings of the FNS evaluation of the fiscal year 2018 and 2019 Farm to School grantees, highlighting their activities, achievements, and challenges.
The 2023 Farm to School Census collected information on farm to school participation by school food authorities (SFAs) in school year 2022–23. Every SFA participating in the National School Lunch Program in the 50 states, Washington, DC, and five territories received an online survey asking about the farm to school activities they participated in, details of their participation, and their perspectives on farm to school.
The Statewide Thrifty Food Plan Cost Estimate for Hawaii report describes the process used to calculate a new Thrifty Food Plan cost estimate for Hawaii that is based on the best currently available food price data from throughout the state of Hawaii in alignment with the proposed rule. This report uses the same peer-reviewed methodology as the Thrifty Food Plan Cost Estimates for Alaska and Hawaii report, published by FNA in 2023.