Appendix E.3 Study Brochure

APPENDIX E.3
STUDY BROCHURE

 SMO

School Meals Operations Study

OMB Clearance Number: 0584-0607
Expiration date: XX/XX/20XX

About the Study
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service’s (FNS) school-based Child
Nutrition (CN) programs help ensure that children do not go hungry and have access to safe, nutritious
foods at school. To inform current and future policy decisions and effectively oversee these programs,
FNS requires information on how these programs are operating.
FNS has contracted with Mathematica to conduct the School Meals Operations (SMO) Study for school
year (SY) 2020-2021, with data collections anticipated on an annual basis through SY 2023-2024. In
general, SMO will address research questions related to school participation, student participation,
meal counting, financial management, and program integrity. However, for SY 2020-2021, the study has
been repurposed to facilitate the timely collection of information to satisfy State Agency (SA) reporting
requirements for 21 COVID-19-related nationwide waivers. The modified SMO Study will focus on the
use of these waivers and the administration of CN programs that operated under nationwide waiver
authority during the period from March 2020 through September 2020.

Participating in the Study
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) (PL 116-127) requires any SA that elects to use
a CN nationwide waiver to submit a report, not later than 1 year after electing to use the waiver that,
at a minimum, summarizes the use of such waiver and describes how the waiver resulted in improved
services to program participants. For SY 2020-2021, the study includes CN directors overseeing all of
the programs affected by these waivers, including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School
Breakfast Program (SBP), Seamless Summer Option (SSO), Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), and
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,
Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. SMO data collection will begin in the spring of 2021. To the extent
possible, data collection activities have been designed to reduce participant burden.
The CN Director will be asked to complete:
A web survey. This survey gathers information on statutory reporting requirements for the COVID-19 CN
waivers that were initially authorized in spring 2020, such as details about the use of each waiver and their
effect on improving services to children.
Administrative data request. The study team will request school-level FNS-10 administrative data for
fiscal year 2020 to collect information on school participation, student participation, and meals served in
the CN programs covered on that form. The team will also request site-level data from the FNS-418 and
FNS-44 for March through September 2020 to address, in part, the statutory reporting requirement
regarding use of the COVID-19 CN waivers that were initially authorized in spring 2020.
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is collecting this information in order to satisfy the congressionally mandated reporting requirements from State agencies on 21
COVID-19 nationwide waivers pursuant to section 2202 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (P.L. 116-127). This is a mandatory collection and FNS will
use the information to assess how the waivers improved services to children and to inform FNS’s planning, policy, and guidance related to state and local meal service
operations during future emergency situations and unanticipated school closures. Because the personally identifiable information (PII) requested under this collection
will not be used to retrieve survey records or data, requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974 do not apply. Responses will be kept private to the extent provided by law
and FNS regulations. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a
collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-0607. The time
required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 3 minutes (.0501 hours) per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching
existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden
estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition
Service, Office of Policy Support, 1320 Braddock Place, 5th Floor, Alexandria, VA 22314. ATTN: PRA (0584-0607). Do not return the completed form to this address.

Protecting Privacy
We will group responses with those of other study participants so the data will not identify individual
School Food Authorities or schools. Some of the information gathered may be presented by State.
Each respondent’s personally identifiable information will be kept private to the full extent allowed
by law. No individual student data are being collected. Taking part in the study will not affect meal
payments to participating States and districts.

Disseminating the Findings
FNS will consider the most effective ways to disseminate the study’s finding to a broad audience and
expects to release findings in 2022.

About the SMO Research Team
Mathematica is among the nation’s leading research companies. The team has over 50 years of experience
in conducting research for government agencies and studying child nutrition programs.

For More Information
Rachel Frisk
Project Director
Mathematica
[studyemail]@mathematica-mpr.com
(xxx) xxx-xxxx

Holly Figueroa
FNS Project Officer
Food and Nutrition Services
U.S. Department of Agriculture
[email protected]
(703) 305-2105