Increasing participation in school meals could reduce food insecurity and improve dietary quality, especially for low-income children, but low-cost, scalable strategies for increasing participation in school meals have not yet been identified or evaluated. This study will design and rigorously evaluate a marketing campaign to encourage participation in school meals. The study has three aims: (1) Develop a marketing campaign encouraging school meal participation; (2) Evaluate the impact of the marketing campaign on school meal participation in a RCT; and (3) Convene key stakeholders to review findings and develop next steps and policy recommendations. The study will use a combination of qualitative semi-structured interviews, an online RCT with parents of children in grades 1-5, and an online convening to identify policy recommendations.
Start Date: November 2023
ID #: 81356
Principal Investigator: Anna Grummon, PhD
Organization: Board and Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
Funding Round: HER Round 13
Age Group: Elementary-age children (grades K to 5)
Resource Type: Grant Summary
Focus Area: School & After School
Keyword: School meal programs
Related Research
August 2025
Universal Free School Meal Policies and Participation in the US National School Meal Programs
This study aimed to examine the impact of federal- and state-level Universal Free School Meal (UFSM) policies and related policies on National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) participation rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This comparative effectiveness research study used a natural experiment created by the COVID-19 pandemic to analyze MoreNovember 2024
School-based nutrition education programs alone are not cost effective for preventing childhood obesity: a microsimulation study
Although interventions to change nutrition policies, systems, and environments (PSE) for children are generally cost effective for preventing childhood obesity, existing evidence suggests that nutrition education curricula, without accompanying PSE changes, are more commonly implemented. This study aimed to estimate the societal costs and potential for cost-effectiveness of 3 nutrition education curricula frequently implemented in MoreNovember 2023