Reduce Sodium - SLT

Appendix C2.
Prescreening Web Survey Invitation Email

XX/XX/XXXX

To: [SFA DIRECTORS from ALL STATES]
Subject: “Successful Approaches to Reduce Sodium in School Meals” Survey

Dear [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME]:

2M Research Services and its partner, Abt Associates, are conducting a survey for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), as part of a study called “Successful Approaches to Reduce Sodium in School Meals.”

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA) authorizes funding and sets policy for school meal programs. Federal regulations (7 CFR Part 210.10) set nutritional and other meal requirements for school breakfasts and lunches, including targets for sodium levels. FNS has commissioned this study to identify

• successes and challenges while working towards reducing sodium in your school meals; and

• strategies, best practices, tools, or resources that supported your sodium reduction efforts.

Your SFA site has been selected to participate in this important study. The survey is designed to be completed within 15 minutes, and should be completed by the SFA director. This is a web survey that you will complete online. You may complete parts of the survey, save it by clicking “Save & Continue,” and exit by closing the browser. You may then log in using the same PIN (provided below) to continue at a later time if needed. Please note that SFAs participating in USDA programs, such as the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), are required under Section 305 of the HHFKA to cooperate in the evaluations and studies of those USDA programs.

In order to complete this survey, you will need the following information: (1) the number of schools in your SFA that are participating in NSLP and SBP; (2) daily average number of students who received free meals, reduced-price meals, and paid meals during the month of October 2016; (3) the average daily sodium content for breakfast and lunch in the 2016–2017 school year; and (4) the approaches your SFA has used to reduce sodium content and/or increase the acceptability of lower sodium foods among students. Please feel free to ask for assistance from other individuals in your SFA who conduct the nutrient analysis.

We encourage you to complete the survey as soon as possible. There is a small risk of loss of privacy, but the research team has taken many steps to reduce this risk. Your identity and any information attributable to you will not be released to anyone outside of the research team.

[FOR THE VERSION TO BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE SELECTED SFAs, INCLUDE THE SENTENCE BELOW AND LOGIN AND PIN NUMBER; FOR THE GENERIC VERSION FORWARDED BY STATE AGENCIES, DO NOT INCLUDE]

To access the survey, please log on to 2MSurvey.com or by clicking here [LINK]. You will be asked for your username and PIN number, which is provided below.

Username: [username]

PIN: [NUMBER]

Upon completing the survey, you may be contacted again and invited to participate in an in-depth interview with our research team. You will be notified in March 2017 if you have been selected.

We thank you in advance for your important contribution to this research. For assistance with the survey, you may use our toll free help line and our help desk email. The toll free help desk number is 1-866-465-7738, and the help desk email is [SUPPORT EMAIL/WEB FORM]. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about this study.

Sincerely,

[RESEARCH TEAM CONTACT INFORMATION]

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is XXXX-XXXX. It will take you, on average, 3 minutes to read this email and log in to the survey.