State and Local Governments

APPENDIX C19. PRINCIPAL INTRODUCTION EMAIL TO SCHOOLS
(GROUPS 2a, 2B, and 3)

This information is being collected to assist the Food and Nutrition Service in understanding school food purchasing practices, the nutritional quality of school meals and snacks, the cost to produce school meals, and student participation and dietary intakes. This is a mandatory collection and FNS will use the information to monitor program operations. This collection does not request any personally identifiable information under the Privacy Act of 1974. 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 0584-0698. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 0.13 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 (0584-0698). Do not return the completed form to this address.

OMB Number: 0584-0698

Expiration Date: 06/30/2027

TO: <P_EMAIL>, <SFA_EMAIL>, <RECRUITER NAME>

FROM: [EMAIL]

SUBJECT: 2024 – 2025 National School Foods Study Data Collection at Your School

<School>

Dear <P_FN> <P_LN>:

Recently, your school was selected for the 2024 – 2025 National School Foods Study as part of your district’s participation in the study. Mathematica [IF G2a/G3: and Decision Information Resources] (is/are) conducting the National School Foods Study for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. With better data comes better policy; we seek to collect data to fully understand the school food environment. We appreciate the time and effort that you and other school staff will devote to the study. For more information on study data collection activities, please review the study overview attached.

We are scheduled to visit your school on [VISIT DATE] during the district’s selected data collection week. Professionally trained field interviewers will conduct interviews and make observations. Your support ensures that this is a smooth process for everyone involved.

[IF G2a/G2b: As an immediate next step, we request that a school liaison be designated so the study team can work directly with someone to coordinate the details of the data collection. The school liaison will provide us with school roster so that we can select the students to participate in the study. We would like them to help distribute study materials to students and encourage participation. The school liaison should also be available the day of the visit to help the data collectors while they are on-site. [IF INCENTIVES ALLOWED AT SFA: We would like to provide the school liaison a $65/$95 gift card as a token of our appreciation for these efforts.] Please email us the name and contact information of the person who should fill the role of school liaison. If we don’t hear from you, a representative from Mathematica will follow up. Once a school liaison is assigned, we will coordinate directly with them about on-site data collection details.] Attached is a description of next steps for you and the school liaison.

[IF G3: As part of the study, you will be asked to complete an interview on [VISIT DATE]. This interview will review the activities school staff do to help food service and their compensation, so that we can calculate the cost of their food service work. For example, if a teacher supervises a lunch period we would want to know salary information about this person.]

[IF G2a/G3: After we visit your school we will ask you to complete a brief, web-based survey that covers general school characteristics and school policies related to nutrition education and physical activity and education. DIR will send you an email invitation with a link to the web survey when it’s ready.]

While we are at your school we will:

• [IF G2a/G2b: Interview students. Professional data collectors will interview a small sample of students randomly selected from school rosters. [IF G2a: Parents of these students will also be asked to complete a survey over the web, by phone, or in-person. Selected parents and students will be notified about the study by mail.] Participation is voluntary, and they may choose not to participate in advance or at the time of the interview if they wish. More information about these interviews is included in the attachments.]

• [IF G3: Ask the School Nutrition Manager to complete an in-person cost survey about the school food service staff and their compensation.]

• Work with the School Nutrition Manager to conduct observations of how school food programs are administered.

• [IF G3 and PlanningSFAPW = 1: If your school is selected, we will observe students’ tray to estimate the proportion of foods wasted by students.]

• [IF G3: The SNM will also be asked to complete an in-person cost survey and a web survey about the school environment and operations.]

If you have any questions, please feel free to call a member of our project team at team at [NUMBER] or email [EMAIL]. We look forward to working with you on this important study.

Sincerely,

Alice Ann Gola

National School Foods Study Project Director

Mathematica

[IF G2a/G2b: Attachment: Next Steps for Principals; Study overview]