Prolonged school closures are one of the most disruptive forces in the COVID‐19 era. School closures have upended life for children and families, and educators have been forced to determine how to provide distance learning. Schools are also an essential source of nonacademic supports in the way of health and mental health services, food assistance, obesity prevention, and intervention in cases of homelessness and maltreatment. This article focuses on the physical and emotional toll resulting from school closures and the withdrawal of nonacademic supports that students rely on. The COVID‐19 pandemic is shining a spotlight on how important schools are for meeting children's nonacademic needs. We argue that when students return to school there will be a more acute and wider‐spread need for school‐based nonacademic services and supports. Further, we expect that COVID‐19 will serve as a focusing event opening a window of opportunity for programmatic and policy change that improves nonacademic services and supports in the future.

The intervention resulted in increased F&V consumption, with more pronounced and enduring effects for fruits than vegetables.

Objective To examine the effects of a multi-component, theory-based, 2.5-year intervention on children’s fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, preferences, knowledge and body mass index (BMI). Methods Four inner city elementary schools in the Northeastern United States were randomized to an intervention (n = 149) or control group (n = 148) in 2005. F&V consumption during school lunch (measured by plate waste), preferences, and knowledge, as well as BMI were assessed five times across 3.5 years (pre-intervention, spring 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze program outcomes. Results At the first post-test assessment, children in the experimental group ate 0.28 more servings/lunch of F&V relative to children in the control group and changes in F&V consumption were found in each year throughout the program. However, this effect declined steadily across time so that by the delayed one-year follow-up period there was no difference between the groups in F&V consumption. There were persistent intervention effects on children’s knowledge. There were no effects on F&V preferences and BMI throughout the study. Conclusion Although there was initial F&V behavior change, annual measurements indicated a gradual decay of behavioral effects. These data have implications for the design of school-based F&V interventions.

The law's implementation resulted in major improvements in the availability and nutritional quality of competitive foods and beverages, but schools did not reach 100% compliance. This law closely mirrors US Department of Agriculture Smart Snacks in School standards, suggesting that complying with strict nutrition standards is feasible, and schools may experience challenges and improvements over time.