State Agencies

 SMO

School Meals Operations Study

OMB Clearance Number: 0584-0607
Expiration date:

xx/xx/20xx

About the Study

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has Child Nutrition (CN) Programs that
help ensure children have access to nutritious foods all year long. FNS requires
information about CN Program operations to make evidence-based decisions about
program policies and budgets, identify technical assistance needs, and track important
program operation information across time.
FNS contracted with Mathematica to conduct the School Meals Operations (SMO)
Study. So far, Mathematica has collected four years of SMO data corresponding to
school years 2019-2020 through 2022-2023. The fifth year of data collection,
corresponding to school year 2023-2024, will begin in fall 2024.
Read on for more information!

Participating in the Study

Section 28 of the Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act requires State
Agencies to cooperate with FNS's annual
evaluations of its CN Programs. The 68
State Agencies that administer 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, District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are
required to participate in this collection.
Data collection activities have been
designed to reduce participant burden as
much as possible.

The State Agency Director will be
asked to complete:
A web survey. The fall 2024 survey for
State Agency Directors will gather
information on CN program operations
in SY 2023-2024. The survey will take
an estimated 30 minutes to complete.
Administrative data requests. In
spring 2025, the study team will
request disaggregated FNS-10,
FNS-418, and FNS-44 administrative
data for fiscal year 2024, including
information about school and site
participation, and children’s program
participation.

Protecting Privacy

We will group responses with those of other study participants so the data will not identify
individuals, schools, sites, outlets, school food authorities, institutions, or sponsors. Some
information 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.

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 2026.

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

Kevin Conway
Project Director
Mathematica
[email protected]
(833) 440-9475

Darcy Güngör
FNS Project Officer
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
[email protected]

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is collecting this information to understand how State agencies operated CN Programs in
SY 2023-2024. This is a mandatory collection. FNS will use the information to inform its planning, policy, and guidance related to
the Child Nutrition Programs. 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 read this brochure is estimated
to average 3 minutes (0.05 hours). 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).