Describes the design of a national study of USDA's Summer Food Service Program, created in 1975 to provide children from low-income families with nutritious meals when school is not in session, including appropriate sample and data collection methodologies, analytic methods, and study costs. On...

This report from the field describes the design, implementation, and early evaluation results of the Healthy Weight Collaborative, a federally supported learning collaborative to develop, test, and disseminate an integrated change package of six promising, evidence-based clinical and...

Describes a study design permitting a scientifically defensible evaluation of the impact of the School Breakfast Program on learning and cognitive development among children. Reviews the literature and presents a conceptual framework of the SBP-learning relationship, and then proposes and...

This compendium includes 128 survey questions used in previous research to assess dietary knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors for low-income populations over the age of 18. Questions on nine topics—including fruits and vegetables; grains, legumes, and fiber; variety; fat; calcium food...

This research brief is intended to assist nutrition educators in assessing whether specific characteristics of nutrition messages promote desired dietary behavior changes. Based on a computerized literature search targeting peer-reviewed journal articles, it highlights three topics pertinent to...

Does eating school meals influence children’s dietary habits or chances of being overweight or obese? This study addressed these questions using data from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment III Study. National School Lunch Program participants had lower intakes of sugar-sweetened...

Examines and synthesizes current knowledge about the relationship between breakfast and learning, including the relationship between nutrition and cognitive development, children's breakfast consumption patterns, relative contribution of breakfast to dietary intake over 24 hours, and impact of...

The Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children demonstration offered a rigorous test of the impact of providing a monthly benefit of $60 per child eligible for free or reduced-price school meals—using existing electronic benefit transfer (EBT) systems—on food insecurity among...