The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program play a crucial role in ensuring access to nutritious meals for children in the US. During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal waivers allowed all schools to offer Universal Free School Meals (UFSM) from 2020 to 2022, but when these waivers expired, most states ended the program, while a few continued it under their own statewide policies. A new study aimed to examine how the continuation versus deimplementation of Universal Free School Meal policies affected School Food Authority greported outcomes, using survey data from across eight states during the school year 2022-23. Study results found that compared to school food authorities (SFAs) in states that continued Universal Free School Meals, those that ended the policy were significantly more likely to report declines in student meal participation, increases in stigma for students from low-income households, and increases in meal debt and revenue losses. SFAs in states that deimplemented the policies also reported fewer staffing challenges, likely due to lower participation rates. Deimplementing Universal Free School Meals policies appears to adversely impact students and schools, suggesting that returning to such policies could increase student participation and foodservice revenues while reducing stigma and meal debt. Future policies and research are needed to support SFAs to address staffing challenges and to examine broader academic, health, and economic outcomes of Universal Free School Meal policies. This study was conducted by researchers at Merrimack College, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Arizona State University, New York University, Stanford University, University of New England, and University of Connecticut in partnership with the Nutrition Policy Institute. Learn more about NPI’s School Meals for All research.
