IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i13p7650-d845375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Let’s Use This Mess to Our Advantage”: Calls to Action to Optimize School Nutrition Program beyond the Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Beth N. Katz

    (Food Insight Group, Berkeley, CA 94707, USA)

  • Jessica Soldavini

    (Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
    Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA)

  • Kiran Grover

    (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Stephanie Jilcott Pitts

    (Department of Public Health, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA)

  • Stephanie L. Martin

    (Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA)

  • Linden Thayer

    (Food Insight Group, Berkeley, CA 94707, USA)

  • Alice S. Ammerman

    (Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
    Department of Public Health, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA)

  • Hannah G. Lane

    (Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27708, USA)

Abstract

School nutrition programs mitigate food insecurity and promote healthy eating by offering consistent, nutritious meals to school-aged children in communities across the United States; however, stringent policy guidelines and contextual challenges often limit participation. During COVID-19 school closures, most school nutrition programs remained operational, adapting quickly and innovating to maximize reach. This study describes semi-structured interviews with 23 nutrition directors in North Carolina, which aimed to identify multi-level contextual factors that influenced implementation, as well as ways in which the innovations during COVID-19 could translate to permanent policy and practice change and improve program reach. Interviews were conducted during initial school closures (May–August 2020) and were deductively analyzed using the Social Ecological Model (SEM) and Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Analysis elicited multiple relevant contextual factors: director characteristics (motivation, leadership style, experience), key implementation stakeholders (internal staff and external partners), inner setting (implementation climate, local leadership engagement, available resources, structural characteristics), and outer setting (state leadership engagement, external policies and incentives). Findings confirm the strength and resilience of program directors and staff, the importance of developing strategies to strengthen external partnerships and emergency preparedness, and strong support from directors for policies offering free meals to all children.

Suggested Citation

  • Beth N. Katz & Jessica Soldavini & Kiran Grover & Stephanie Jilcott Pitts & Stephanie L. Martin & Linden Thayer & Alice S. Ammerman & Hannah G. Lane, 2022. "“Let’s Use This Mess to Our Advantage”: Calls to Action to Optimize School Nutrition Program beyond the Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-23, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7650-:d:845375
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7650/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7650/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brooke L. Bennett & Kim M. Gans & Kara Burkholder & Julia Esposito & Sarah Wen Warykas & Marlene B. Schwartz, 2022. "Distributing Summer Meals during a Pandemic: Challenges and Innovations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7650-:d:845375. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.