Evidence makes government work better. Done well, rigorous evaluation provides the evidence needed to drive smarter decisions about where to invest resources and how to design and run programs more effectively, like the Summer EBT for Children Program (SUN Bucks).
In 2019, USDA’s Team Nutrition awarded a training grant to the Michigan Department of Education to implement a two-year training program for School Nutrition Managers called E-STAR. E-STAR is intended to improve school meal quality and student perceptions of meal quality. This study examined how the grantee implemented E-STAR, participant engagement, and facilitators and barriers to engagement.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 authorized Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) as a permanent federal food assistance entitlement program beginning in summer 2024. Summer EBT has been tested through evaluations of demonstration projects since 2011. With pending implementation of this new program, this is an appropriate time to reflect on what USDA, FNS research has learned through more than a decade of study.
USDA's nutrition assistance programs touch the lives of one in four American consumers annually and the nutrition education efforts associated with select programs offer a powerful opportunity to promote food security and improve dietary quality among eligible individuals and families.
In September 2016, FNS awarded Team Nutrition Training Grants to 14 state agencies that administer the USDA’s NSLP, SBP and CACFP. This TNTG cohort was different than previous cohorts because, for the first time, grantees were asked to outline a plan to evaluate some or all of the interventions they would implement with grant funding.
This, being the first in a series of report summaries on the results of the SEBTC demonstration, focuses largely on the early experiences of the planners and implementers from the proof-of-concept phase.