Disaster Management and School Nutrition: A Qualitative Study of Emergency Feeding During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Patten, Emily Vaterlaus; Spruance, Lori Andersen; Vaterlaus, J. Mitchell; Jones, Mckenna; Beckstead, Emmalene

doi:10.1016/j.jand.2021.04.012

Cited by 16 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…SNDs adapted swiftly in the early months of COVID-19, and steps should be taken to ensure more preparedness for future disasters. Our findings endorse suggestions from Patton et al to develop training manuals, attend to employee safety concerns, increase speed of communication, use social media, and promote the role of school nutrition employees as "essential" for future preparedness [18]. Additional recommendations based on our findings include having resources readily available (e.g., maintaining storage infrastructure, allowing districts to retain more than the current limit of three months' operating expenses), giving SNDs a seat with local leaders at the decisionmaking table, and maintaining contact information of local partners and other nearby school districts.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…SNDs were motivated to operate during the pandemic to continue meeting the needs of children in their school districts, to keep programs financially solvent, and to keep staff safe and employed. Their dedication, creativity, and leadership in the face of constantly evolving challenges reinforces findings across other qualitative studies [18][19][20][21][22][23]. We also identified the influence of directors' existing relationships and prior experience with disasters-induced school closures.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…We also identified the influence of directors' existing relationships and prior experience with disasters-induced school closures. Flexibility and resilience were key themes in this and other recent studies [18,21,22]. The SNDs in our study were "bendy flexibles" who were able to "roll with it" despite all the challenges faced in procuring and distributing school meals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…COVID-19 brought new public attention to the role of school nutrition programs in safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the nation's children and serving as hubs of resilience in communities [15][16][17]. There is a burgeoning body of qualitative and mixed methods literature describing the critical role of school meal distribution programs in improving food access across the country during COVID-19, the challenges faced and solutions implemented, and the innovative strategies used to ensure that children and families were fed [18][19][20][21][22][23]. In this study, we seek a deeper understanding of the contextual factors that influenced these challenges, solutions, and innovations across multiple levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Let’s Use This Mess to Our Advantage”: Calls to Action to Optimize School Nutrition Program beyond the Pandemic

Katz

Soldavini

Grover

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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School nutrition programs mitigate food insecurity and promote healthy eating by offering consistent, nutritious meals to school-aged children in communities across the United States; however, stringent policy guidelines and contextual challenges often limit participation. During COVID-19 school closures, most school nutrition programs remained operational, adapting quickly and innovating to maximize reach. This study describes semi-structured interviews with 23 nutrition directors in North Carolina, which aimed to identify multi-level contextual factors that influenced implementation, as well as ways in which the innovations during COVID-19 could translate to permanent policy and practice change and improve program reach. Interviews were conducted during initial school closures (May–August 2020) and were deductively analyzed using the Social Ecological Model (SEM) and Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Analysis elicited multiple relevant contextual factors: director characteristics (motivation, leadership style, experience), key implementation stakeholders (internal staff and external partners), inner setting (implementation climate, local leadership engagement, available resources, structural characteristics), and outer setting (state leadership engagement, external policies and incentives). Findings confirm the strength and resilience of program directors and staff, the importance of developing strategies to strengthen external partnerships and emergency preparedness, and strong support from directors for policies offering free meals to all children.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

“Let’s Use This Mess to Our Advantage”: Calls to Action to Optimize School Nutrition Program beyond the Pandemic

Katz

Soldavini

Grover

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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“…This study suggests that P-EBT can reach the vast majority of eligible children at relatively low cost to the government, while a meal distribution model such as grab-and-go school meals can also ensure families directly receive meals and reach children beyond those who are FRPM-eligible. Our results, as well as those of other researchers, suggest that disaster preparedness plans that help school meal programs safely set up community distribution sites (29,36–39) and establish infrastructure so that P-EBT can be rapidly deployed(39) are needed to prevent future disruption of food access for children. Our P-EBT findings also suggest that there may be a benefit to scaling up the USDA’s Summer-EBT program, which is currently a pilot program,(40) to a national scale.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Pandemic-EBT and grab-and-go school Meals: Costs, reach, and benefits of two approaches to keep children fed during school closures due to COVID-19

Kenney

Walkinshaw

Shen³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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ImportanceSchool meals improve nutrition and health for millions of U.S. children. School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted children’s access to school meals. Two policy approaches were activated to replace missed meals for children from low-income families. The Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program provided the cash value of missed meals directly to families on debit-like cards to use for making food purchases. The grab-and-go meals program offered prepared meals from school kitchens at community distribution points. The effectiveness of these programs at reaching those who needed them and their costs were unknown.ObjectiveTo determine how many eligible children were reached by P-EBT and grab-and-go meals, how many meals or benefits were received, and how much each program cost to implement.DesignCross-sectional study, Spring 2020.SettingNational.ParticipantsAll children <19 years old and children age 6-18 eligible to receive free or reduced price meals (FRPM).Exposure(s)Receipt of P-EBT or grab-and-go school meals.Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s)Percentage of children reached by P-EBT and grab-and-go school meals; average benefit received per recipient; and average cost, including implementation costs and time costs to families, per meal distributed.ResultsGrab-and-go school meals reached about 10.5 million children (17% of all US children), most of whom were FRPM-eligible students. Among FRPM-eligible students only, grab-and-go meals reached 27%, compared to 89% reached by P-EBT. Among those receiving benefits, the average monthly benefit was larger for grab-and-go school meals ($148) relative to P-EBT ($110). P-EBT had lower costs per meal delivered - $6.51 - compared to $8.20 for grab- and-go school meals. P-EBT had lower public sector implementation costs but higher uncompensated time costs to families (e.g., preparation time for meals) compared to grab-and-go school meals.Conclusions and RelevanceBoth programs supported children’s access to food when schools were closed and in complementary ways. P-EBT is an efficient and effective policy option to support food access for eligible children when school is out.KEY POINTSQuestionWhat were the operating costs, costs and benefits to families, and proportion of eligible children who received benefits of two programs aimed at replacing school meals missed when schools were closed due to COVID-19?FindingsIn this cross sectional analysis, we found that the Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfer program, in which state agencies sent debit cards loaded with the cash value of missed school meals directly to families, reached nearly all low income students (89%) and cost relatively little per meal provided. In comparison, grab-and-go school meals, in which school food service departments provided prepared meals for offsite consumption, reached 27% of low income children and was associated with larger per meal costs.MeaningDuring times when children cannot access school meals, state and federal agencies should support cost-efficient programs for schools to distribute prepared meals and activate programs like P-EBT to efficiently reach eligible children.

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Costs, Reach, and Benefits of COVID-19 Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer and Grab-and-Go School Meals for Ensuring Youths’ Access to Food During School Closures

Kenney

Walkinshaw

Shen³

et al. 2022

JAMA Netw Open

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IMPORTANCE School meals are associated with improved nutrition and health for millions of US children, but school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted children's access to school meals. Two policy approaches, the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program, which provided the cash value of missed meals directly to families on debit-like cards to use for making food purchases, and the grab-and-go meals program, which offered prepared meals from school kitchens at community distribution points, were activated to replace missed meals for children from low-income families; however, the extent to which these programs reached those who needed them and the programs' costs were unknown. OBJECTIVE To assess the proportion of eligible youths who were reached by P-EBT and grab-and-go meals, the amount of meals or benefits received, and the cost to implement each program. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This cross-sectional study was conducted from March toJune 2020. The study population was all US youths younger than 19 years, including US youths aged 6 to 18 years who were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals (primary analysis sample).EXPOSURES Receipt of P-EBT or grab-and-go school meals. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESThe main outcomes were the percentage of youths reached by P-EBT and grab-and-go school meals, mean benefit received per recipient, and mean cost, including implementation costs and time costs to families per meal distributed. RESULTS Among 30 million youths eligible for free or reduced-price meals, grab-and-go meals reached an estimated 8.0 million (27%) and P-EBT reached 26.9 million (89%). The grab-and-go school meals program distributed 429 million meals per month in spring 2020, and the P-EBT program distributed $3.2 billion in monthly cash benefits, equivalent to 1.1 billion meals. Among those receiving benefits, the mean monthly benefit was larger for grab-and-go school meals

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Disaster Management and School Nutrition: A Qualitative Study of Emergency Feeding During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 16 publications

References 10 publications

“Let’s Use This Mess to Our Advantage”: Calls to Action to Optimize School Nutrition Program beyond the Pandemic

“Let’s Use This Mess to Our Advantage”: Calls to Action to Optimize School Nutrition Program beyond the Pandemic

Pandemic-EBT and grab-and-go school Meals: Costs, reach, and benefits of two approaches to keep children fed during school closures due to COVID-19

Costs, Reach, and Benefits of COVID-19 Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer and Grab-and-Go School Meals for Ensuring Youths’ Access to Food During School Closures

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