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Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs are critical for the health and food security of U.S. schoolchildren, but access to these programs was disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures in spring 2020. While temporary policy changes...

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Autores principales: Kenney, Erica L., Dunn, Caroline G., Mozaffarian, Rebecca S., Dai, Jane, Wilson, Katie, West, Jeremy, Shen, Ye, Fleischhacker, Sheila, Bleich, Sara N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8401539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444851
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13082691
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author Kenney, Erica L.
Dunn, Caroline G.
Mozaffarian, Rebecca S.
Dai, Jane
Wilson, Katie
West, Jeremy
Shen, Ye
Fleischhacker, Sheila
Bleich, Sara N.
author_facet Kenney, Erica L.
Dunn, Caroline G.
Mozaffarian, Rebecca S.
Dai, Jane
Wilson, Katie
West, Jeremy
Shen, Ye
Fleischhacker, Sheila
Bleich, Sara N.
author_sort Kenney, Erica L.
collection PubMed
description The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs are critical for the health and food security of U.S. schoolchildren, but access to these programs was disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures in spring 2020. While temporary policy changes to the programs enabled school food authorities (SFAs) to pivot towards distributing meals throughout their communities instead of within school buildings, SFAs faced complex challenges during COVID-19 with minimal external support. This mixed methods study investigates the implementation and financial challenges experienced by twelve of the largest urban SFAs in the U.S. during COVID-19. We conducted semi-structured interviews with SFA leaders and analyzed alongside quantitative financial data. We found that SFAs reconfigured their usual operations with nearly no preparation time while simultaneously trying to keep staff from contracting COVID-19, accommodate stakeholders with sometimes competing priorities, and remain financially solvent. Because student participation was much lower than during regular times, and revenue is tied to the number of meals served, SFAs saw drastic decreases in revenue even as they carried regular operating costs. For future crises, disaster preparedness plans that help SFAs better navigate the switch to financially viable community distribution methods are needed.
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spelling pubmed-84015392021-08-29 Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges Kenney, Erica L. Dunn, Caroline G. Mozaffarian, Rebecca S. Dai, Jane Wilson, Katie West, Jeremy Shen, Ye Fleischhacker, Sheila Bleich, Sara N. Nutrients Article The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs are critical for the health and food security of U.S. schoolchildren, but access to these programs was disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures in spring 2020. While temporary policy changes to the programs enabled school food authorities (SFAs) to pivot towards distributing meals throughout their communities instead of within school buildings, SFAs faced complex challenges during COVID-19 with minimal external support. This mixed methods study investigates the implementation and financial challenges experienced by twelve of the largest urban SFAs in the U.S. during COVID-19. We conducted semi-structured interviews with SFA leaders and analyzed alongside quantitative financial data. We found that SFAs reconfigured their usual operations with nearly no preparation time while simultaneously trying to keep staff from contracting COVID-19, accommodate stakeholders with sometimes competing priorities, and remain financially solvent. Because student participation was much lower than during regular times, and revenue is tied to the number of meals served, SFAs saw drastic decreases in revenue even as they carried regular operating costs. For future crises, disaster preparedness plans that help SFAs better navigate the switch to financially viable community distribution methods are needed. MDPI 2021-08-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8401539/ /pubmed/34444851 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13082691 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kenney, Erica L.
Dunn, Caroline G.
Mozaffarian, Rebecca S.
Dai, Jane
Wilson, Katie
West, Jeremy
Shen, Ye
Fleischhacker, Sheila
Bleich, Sara N.
Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges
title Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges
title_full Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges
title_fullStr Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges
title_full_unstemmed Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges
title_short Feeding Children and Maintaining Food Service Operations during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Implementation and Financial Challenges
title_sort feeding children and maintaining food service operations during covid-19: a mixed methods investigation of implementation and financial challenges
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8401539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444851
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13082691
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