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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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8401539 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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