School Nutrition Survey Identifies Challenges
By the School Nutrition AssociationThe School Nutrition Association (SNA) is a national, nonprofit professional organization representing 50,000 members who provide high-quality, low-cost meals to students across the country. SNA surveyed its school nutrition director members in November 2022 to evaluate economic, operational, and regulatory challenges for school nutrition programs and assess the impact of the loss of federal pandemic waivers.
The survey aimed to identify the most salient current challenges facing school nutrition programs; track the adequacy of reimbursement rates, trends in school meal prices, and the impact of the loss of federal pandemic waivers; evaluate the extent of unpaid meal charges and debt; provide a snapshot of average daily participation over a year; and examine concerns regarding forthcoming rules to update federal school nutrition standards.The survey had over 1,200 respondents. The top three challenges for school meal programs are
- Increasing costs: 99.8% of respondents indicated increasing costs as a challenge for their school nutrition program.
- Staff shortages: As district enrollment increases, so does the percentage of school nutrition programs identifying staff shortages as a significant challenge: 43.4% of districts with fewer than 1,000 total students report staff shortages as a significant challenge, while 79.1% of districts with 25,000 or more total students report staff shortages as a significant challenge.
- Menu item shortages: The top three most challenging items to procure are breakfast items (e.g. cereals, granola bars, biscuits, pancakes); entrees (e.g. pizza, burritos, chicken, burgers); and snacks (e.g. crackers/chips).
School Meal Reimbursements
Only around a quarter of respondents report the school year 2022-2023 National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program (NSLP/SBP) per-meal reimbursement rates are sufficient to cover costs of producing a reimbursable meal. Over half of respondents reported they were not sufficient to cover the cost of producing a reimbursable meal. Almost all — 99.2% — were concerned about the adequacy of the NSLP/SBP per meal reimbursement rates when the additional Keep Kids Fed Act reimbursements expire at the end of 2022-2023.
Loss of Waiver Allowing Free Meals
Half of responding school nutrition programs are offering free breakfast to all students district-wide, and 39.3% are offering free lunch to all students district-wide. Of the districts that indicated they charge for meals, a majority reported that the loss of the federal pandemic waiver allowing all schools to offer free meals to all students had caused an increase in unpaid meal charges/debt, concerns/complaints from families, paperwork/administrative burden, and stigma for low-income students.
Average Daily Participation
Both breakfast and lunch average daily participation (ADP) in October 2022 were lower than in October 2021. Programs that offer free meals to all students district-wide reported an increase in ADP for both breakfast (8.9% increase from October 2021 to October 2022) and lunch (6.4% increase over the same span). Meanwhile, programs that did not offer free meals to all students district-wide reported lower ADP for both breakfast (23.1% decrease October to October) and lunch (13.2% decrease).
Standards
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update federal nutrition standards for school meals. Schools participating in NSLP/SBP must meet standards in the areas of more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, calorie limits, sodium limits, limits on unhealthy fat, offering low-fat and fat-free milk, and free water. In 2022, the USDA issued transitional nutrition standards for school years 2022-23 and 2023-24 to ease forthcoming requirements due to pandemic challenges. Of the survey respondents, almost all are moderately or seriously concerned regarding the availability of foods that will meet the standards, notably the Target 1A sodium limits (effective July 2023), and are also well accepted by students. Almost all also are concerned about possible mandates that all grains offered with school meals be whole-grain rich and about new limits on added sugar being considered.
Illinois is included in SNA’s Midwest Region, with Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The Midwest’s per-meal charge for students was the same as the national average for lunches, and slightly higher — by one or two cents — for breakfasts. In the Midwest, 62.3% reported raising school meal program prices, slightly more than the national average of 60.5%.
The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is a national, nonprofit professional organization representing 50,000 members who plan, prepare and serve healthy school meals. Excerpted and adapted with permission. Visit schoolnutrition.org/ to read the full report. The Illinois chapter of the SNA, with a mission of mission “to mentor our membership in the advancement of good nutrition for all children,” is at ilsna.net. Both offer resources to school nutrition personnel and information for governance teams.