State and Local Governments

APPENDIX E06. PRINCIPAL INTRODUCTION LETTER TO SCHOOLS

(FULL OUTLYING AREAS)

OMB Number: 0584-0698

Expiration Date: 06/30/2027

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.

< Date>

<P_FN> <P_LN>

<School>

Dear <P_FN> <P_LN>:

[SCHOOL NAME] was selected for the 2024–2025 National School Foods Study. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) selected Mathematica and Decision Information Resources to conduct the study.

The study will provide critical information to FNS about the cost of producing school meals in [Alaska/Guam/Hawaii]. This study is important because an accurate assessment of meal costs could eventually be used to adjust per-meal reimbursement rates in your [State/Territory].

We are scheduled to collect data from you and your school nutrition manager during the week of [DATE]. All data collection will occur over the phone or electronically.

As part of the study, you will be asked to complete a video/web interview with a data collector during the week of [DATE]. This interview will review the activities that school staff do to help food service, and what their compensation is, 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.

Also, during the week of [DATE], the school nutrition manager will be asked to complete (1) a web-based menu survey, and (2) a video/web interview.

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 the school nutrition manager will devote to the study. If you have any questions, please feel free to call a member of our project team at [PHONE] or email [EMAIL]. Thank you so much for your time; we look forward to working with you on this important study.

Sincerely,

Alice Ann Gola

Study Project Director

Mathematica