Integrated Study of School Meal Costs and Outcomes: A Design, Cost, and Feasibility Plan, Volume 1: Final Report

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) are designed to provide nutritionally balanced low-cost or free meals to children in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has modernized school meal program nutrition standards and renewed emphasis on nutrition education as a part of the school meal programs. The proposed design for an integrated study of school meal costs and outcomes was intended to address the need for research on the success of school meals in meeting program goals, the cost of serving healthful meals that are accepted well by children, and the relationship of school menus and competitive foods to children’s participation and diets. The study proposed to collect a broad range of data from nationally representative samples of School Food Authorities, schools, and students at a critical time in the development of the NSLP and SBP. The contractors pretested the study instruments in nine SFAs to confirm their feasibility. The estimated investment in the complete study was calculated at $12.4 million to $15.1 million in 2003. An integrated study would provide unprecedented opportunities to understand the relationships among program operations, meal quality, costs, and student outcomes. The proposed study design was estimated to save $2 million to $3 million over the combined cost of separate studies of meal costs and program outcomes.