About the initiative
Improving food access and affordability
In 2022, the White House published the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, which addresses ending hunger and enhancing healthy eating in the United States. One of the strategy’s key pillars is, “Improve Food Access and Affordability: End hunger by making it easier for everyone—including individuals in urban, suburban, rural and Tribal communities and territories—to access and afford food.” The report indicates that school meals have the potential to impact children’s nutrition and other key outcomes and can be used as an intervention to improve child health and child hunger. Additionally, expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could impact nutrition and food security for low-income Americans. However, recent systematic reviews on these topics either do not exist or did not adequately address these topics.
Role of the Evidence Center
The Texas A&M Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Evidence Center initiated systematic reviews examining the association between universal free school meals and the SNAP on diet quality and various health and behavioral outcomes. These reviews will provide timely state-of-the-evidence assessments that can be used when considering the implementation of these important programs.
Publications
Universal Free School Meals and School and Student Outcomes: A Systematic Review
Key Points
Question What is the association between universal free school meals (UFSMs) and school and student outcomes in US schools?
Findings
In this systematic review of 6 studies comprising more than 11 000 schools, implementation of UFSM was associated with increased lunch (3 studies) and breakfast (1 study) participation, no change or modestly improved attendance (2 studies), and decreased obesity prevalence (1 study) and suspensions (1 study). The association with lunch participation had a moderate certainty of evidence, while the other associations had low or very low certainty of evidence.
Meaning
In this study, implementation of UFSMs was associated with increased meal participation and potentially increased attendance and decreased obesity and suspensions.