J Acad Nutr Diet. 2020 Oct;120(10):1715-1721. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2020.04.003. Epub 2020 Jul 4.
One in six US households with children experiences food insecurity, with higher rates in the summer. Approximately 3 million children receive free meals each summer weekday through the US Department of Agriculture's Summer Nutrition Programs. However, participation in these programs has been declining in recent years and is lower than participation in programs that serve free or reduced-price meals during the school year.
To identify school and site characteristics associated with greater reach by school-based free summer meals program sites.
This observational study combined program data, public school data, and Google Maps data to determine factors associated with site reach.
PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: LunchStop Summer Meals Program sites (N=100) and schools at which they were based during summer 2018 in Chicago, IL.
Reach of sites was measured by the mean daily meals served at each site throughout summer 2018.
Associations between site reach and each independent variable were evaluated using Mann-Whitney tests and simple linear regressions. Variables significantly associated with site reach in bivariate analyses (P<0.05) were included in a multivariate linear regression.
In bivariate analyses, sites with greater reach were significantly more likely to be based at schools with higher attendance percentages, higher percentages of Hispanic/Latino students, larger student populations, and locations in a network of southwest Chicago schools. Those with greater reach were also significantly more likely to have continuity in program staff and more years of site operation (all P values ≤0.01). The last four factors remained significant in multivariate analysis.
School-based summer meals programs may be able to reach more vulnerable children by taking into account continuity among sites and staff. Further research is needed to clarify whether the relationships between these variables and increased reach is causal.
美国有六分之一的有孩子的家庭经历食物无保障，夏季的比例更高。大约有 300 万儿童在每个夏季工作日通过美国农业部的夏季营养计划获得免费餐食。然而，近年来这些计划的参与率一直在下降，并且低于在学年期间提供免费或降价餐食的计划。
确定与学校为基础的免费暑期餐食计划站点的更大覆盖范围相关的学校和地点特征。
这项观察性研究结合了项目数据、公立学校数据和谷歌地图数据，以确定与站点覆盖范围相关的因素。
参与者/设置：午餐站夏季膳食计划站点（N=100）及其在 2018 年夏季位于芝加哥，IL 的基础学校。
站点的覆盖范围通过在整个 2018 年夏季每个站点提供的平均每日餐食来衡量。
使用 Mann-Whitney 检验和简单线性回归评估站点覆盖范围与每个独立变量之间的关联。在双变量分析中与站点覆盖范围显著相关的变量（P<0.05）被纳入多元线性回归。
在双变量分析中，覆盖范围更大的站点更有可能位于出勤率较高、西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生比例较高、学生人数较多的学校，并且位于西南芝加哥学校网络的位置。那些覆盖范围更大的站点也更有可能有项目人员的连续性和更多年的站点运营（所有 P 值≤0.01）。最后四个因素在多元分析中仍然显著。
学校为基础的暑期餐食计划可以通过考虑站点和工作人员之间的连续性来接触更多弱势儿童。需要进一步研究以明确这些变量与增加覆盖范围之间的关系是否具有因果关系。
