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
November 2023
Assessing participation in and implementation of summer electronic-benefits-transfer and non-congregate-meal programs in rural areas
Summer EBT and non-congregate meals are summer meal options that have known associations with reducing food hardship and barriers to food access. But take-up can vary across states, which creates disparities among marginalized populations. The study aims to analyze the coverage, take-up, and implementation decisions made around Summer EBT and non-congregate meals. The research team MoreNovember 2023
Examining the economic value of free school meals to inform future policy decisions on expansion of free school meals in the U.S.
Growing evidence suggests free school meal policies improve student health outcomes and nutrition equity. A key barrier to passage of these policies is concerns regarding potential costs, thus, a broader value for money evaluation is essential to inform policy decisions. This study aims to compare ‘intervention’ states with free school meal policies (i.e., universal free MoreAugust 2023