This is the third study that provides national estimates of the type, quantity, dollar value and unit price of food acquisitions by public school districts participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The study examines the overall changes in the composition of the entire school food market basket including foods purchases for a la carte sales and the relative importance of donated USDA Foods. It also provides insight into the relationship between district characteristics, purchasing practices, and food costs.
This report presents the findings of the formative research undertaken to understand the current operations of nine farmers markets purposely selected by FNS to capture geography, market size, urban city, and variation in participation in nutrition assistance programs.
This report responds to the requirement found in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and summarizes hunger, obesity, and Type II diabetes among American Indian and Alaska Native children living on or near reservations or other tribal lands. The report provides a summary of the most current available statistics on hunger, obesity, and Type II diabetes among children living in Indian Country and offers comparable statistics for the general population. It also describes how USDA federal nutrition assistance programs serve children in Indian Country and how provisions of the HHFKA and other recent initiatives may improve those services.
This report begins with an overview of the WIC program, including its administrative structure and benefits, and a detailed description of the literature search protocol used to identify the studies included.
WIC Participant and Program Characteristics summarizes the demographic characteristics of nationwide participants in April 2010. It includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants, and describes WIC members of migrant farm-worker families.
Pursuant to the 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Act, FNS initiated and carried out the Summer Food for Children demonstration project, aimed at preventing hunger among children during summer months.
To ensure program integrity, school districts must sample household applications certified for free or reduced-price meals, contact the households, and verify eligibility. This process (known as household verification) can be burdensome for both school officials and households. Direct verification uses information from certain other means-tested programs to verify eligibility without contacting applicants. Potential benefits include: less burden for households, less work for school officials, and fewer students with school meal benefits terminated because of nonresponse to verification requests.
This is a report of the National Academies' National Research Council, Committee on National Statistics. It is available here by permission. It may also be obtained through the National Research Council's website. An earlier, prepublication version was made available in May 2010, but should no longer be used.
This study describes the results of intensive site visits that were made in spring 2009 to 14 states with SNAP modernization activities.
The third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study provides the most comprehensive measurement available of: (a) the nutritional quality of reimbursable meals served in the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, (b) the nutritional quality of the breakfasts and lunches consumed by children who participate in these programs, and (c) student participation rates. The study data enable analyses of school meal policies that were not previously possible. This report describes exploratory work to develop a simulation model to predict the potential implications of changes that may be coming in policies and practices related to school meals and school food environments.