Department of Social, Behavioral and Population Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Guilford County Division of Public Health, Greensboro, NC, United States.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jun 23;11:1191325. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1191325. eCollection 2023.
To facilitate continuation of school feeding during COVID-19 school lockdowns, U.S. Congress authorized waivers to allow for school meals to be picked up by parents/guardians in non-school settings. We summarized school meals distribution and characterized reach in socially vulnerable neighborhoods in New Orleans, a city prone to environmental disasters, with a city-wide charter school system, and historically high levels of child poverty and food insecurity.
School meals operations data were obtained from New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) Public Schools for 3/16/2020-5/31/2020. For each pick-up location, we estimated: average meals available (weekly), average meals served (weekly), number of weeks of operation, and rate of meal pick-up ([meals served/meals available]*100). These characteristics were mapped in QGIS v3.28.3, along with neighborhoods' Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). Pearson correlation and ANOVA were run to assess differences between operations characteristics and neighborhood SVI.
From 38 meal sites, 884,929 meals were available for pick-up; 74% of pick-up sites were in moderately/highly socially vulnerable areas. Correlations between average meals available and served, weeks of operation, rate of meal pick-up, and SVI were weak and not statistically significant. SVI was associated with average rate of meal pick-up but not other operations characteristics.
Despite the disaggregated nature of the charter school system, NOLA Public Schools successfully pivoted to providing children with pick-up meals due to COVID-19 lockdowns, with 74% of sites located in socially vulnerable neighborhoods. Future studies should describe the types of meals provided to students during COVID-19, in terms of diet quality and nutrient adequacy.
为了在 COVID-19 学校封锁期间方便继续提供学校供餐，美国国会授权豁免，允许家长/监护人在非学校场所领取学校餐食。我们总结了新奥尔良市（一个易受环境灾害影响的城市，拥有全市范围的特许学校系统，以及历史上高比例的儿童贫困和粮食不安全）学校膳食的分发情况，并对社会弱势群体社区的覆盖范围进行了特征描述。
我们从路易斯安那州新奥尔良市（NOLA）公立学校获取了 2020 年 3 月 16 日至 2020 年 5 月 31 日的学校膳食运营数据。对于每个领取地点，我们估计了以下内容：平均每周可提供的餐数、每周实际供应的餐数、运营周数以及餐食领取率（[供应餐数/可提供餐数]*100）。这些特征在 QGIS v3.28.3 中进行了映射，并与社区的社会脆弱性指数（SVI）一起进行了映射。我们进行了 Pearson 相关性分析和方差分析，以评估运营特征和社区 SVI 之间的差异。
从 38 个用餐地点，有 884929 份餐食可供领取；74%的领取地点位于中度/高度社会脆弱地区。平均每周可提供的餐数和供应餐数、运营周数、餐食领取率以及 SVI 之间的相关性较弱，且不具有统计学意义。SVI 与平均餐食领取率相关，但与其他运营特征无关。
尽管特许学校系统的分散性质，但是由于 COVID-19 封锁，NOLA 公立学校成功地转向为学生提供领取餐食服务，其中 74%的地点位于社会弱势群体社区。未来的研究应该描述在 COVID-19 期间为学生提供的餐食类型，包括饮食质量和营养充足性。
