Universal Free Meals Associated with Lower Meal Costs While Maintaining Nutritional Quality

Abstract

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 allows the provision of universal free meals (UFMs) in high-poverty school areas. Participation in UFM programs, including through CEP, could reduce meal costs due to economies of scale and a lower administrative burden. We analyzed the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study (SNMCS) data from 508 UFM-eligible schools (103 UFMs) to evaluate whether meal costs varied by UFM status. We used school-level data to address the non-random selection to UFMs with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). We estimated a generalized linear model with a log link and gamma distribution to predict meal costs by UFM status and school size. Full costs among medium and large schools were marginally lower in UFM schools for lunch (−$0.673; 95% CI: −1.395, 0.0499; p = 0.068) and significantly lower for breakfast (−$0.575; 95% CI: −1.077, −0.074; p = 0.025). UFM was not associated with meal costs among smaller schools. Healthy Eating Index scores did not vary significantly by UFMs, suggesting that lower costs could be achieved without an adverse effect on nutritional quality. This analysis is limited by the lack of identified student percentage (ISP) data needed to definitively identify CEP eligibility, although results were robust to sensitivity analyses addressing the lack of ISP data. The potential policy impact of these findings emphasizes the need for future studies that assess ISP and cost with more recent data and longitudinal designs.

Providing School Meals to All Students Free of Charge during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Challenges and Benefits Reported by School Foodservice Professionals in California

“…In a national study, smaller SFAs were more likely to report a deficit (defined as costs that exceed revenues), whereas in our California sample, large and medium-sized SFAs were more likely to report a deficit (defined as the meal reimbursement not being enough to cover the full cost of producing meals) [38]. Prior research conducted before the pandemic has shown that implementing USM through CEP reduced costs for school lunch (by USD 0.63) and breakfast (by USD 0.58) among large and medium-sized schools, but not among smaller schools, and that these cost savings were not associated with reducing the nutritional quality of the meals [56]. Finally, it is important to acknowledge that the Californian SFAs reported on the financial sustainability of USM during a time of rising food, labor, and supply costs [57,58].…”

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

“…Immediately adopting a universal school meals (USM) approach may be a critical first step for school meal programs during an emergency, given that districts with CEP reported much more seamless transitions to school MTG and safer working conditions for food service employees with this approach. USM could also have additional economic benefits to programs [ 35 ] and substantial health and academic benefits to students [ 36 , 37 ].…”

Universal School Meals in the US: What Can We Learn from the Community Eligibility Provision?

“…Recent evaluations, most from specific states, have found that the adoption of CEP has improved school meal participation [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], attendance [ 18 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], academic achievement [ 18 , 19 , 23 , 24 ], and school food service finances [ 25 , 26 ]. At the same time, CEP was shown to reduce out-of-school suspension and expulsion rates [ 23 , 27 ].…”