This report responds to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, which directs the FNS to provide a report on the amount of added sugars in school meals.

Expenditures on Children by Families provides estimates of the cost of raising children from birth through age 17 for major budgetary components.

The information in this second year report (school year 2012-13), the first year new lunch standards were implemented, will provide data for observing the improvements resulting from the implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Data was collected from a survey of all state child nutrition directors and a nationally representative sample of school food authorities.

This series of research briefs examines best practices in school food authorities' implementation of key provisions and their impacts in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, including fruits and vegetables, plate waste, sodium, participation, revenue, whole grains, smart snacks, and a special view of obesity.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required the Food and Nutrition Service to conduct a demonstration that adds Medicaid to the list of programs used to directly certify students for free school meals. Although students receiving Medicaid are not categorically eligible for free meals, the DC-M demonstration authorizes selected States and districts to use income information from Medicaid files to directly certify those students found to be eligible for free meals.

This report summarizes findings from the fourth School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study, which collected data from nationally representative samples of school districts and schools in school year 2009-10. 

The diets of most Americans fall short of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This exploratory analysis examines dietary patterns of low-income individuals classified as healthy and less healthy eaters based on their score on the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2005. The HEI-2005 is a 100-point score that measures how well populations adhere to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 

This report, required under the 2008 Farm Bill, reviews the nutritional quality of the food package provided through USDA’s Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, comparing its content to scientific standards including the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Dietary Reference Intakes, the Thrifty Food Plan nutrient standards and the Healthy Eating Index-2005. 

This study examines the implementation of provisions to improve our understanding of the variation in state and local approaches, the challenges encountered in restoring eligibility, the degree to which the eligibility restorations brought new immigrant households into the program; and the potential impacts of sponsor deeming and liability policies.

In 2001, the Food and Nutrition Service awarded $3.7 million in grants to 14 organizations in 11 states to improve Food Stamp Program access through partnerships and new technology. These projects generally aimed to improve access among the elderly, immigrants, the working poor, and other hard-to-reach groups. The projects used a variety of approaches, including targeted advertising campaigns through community media outlets, informational web sites, computer-assisted pre-screening for eligibility, and direct application assistance.