The sampling frame for the NSCPS included 1602 public K-12 schools representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The sample was stratified based on school level (elementary, middle, and high), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) school locale (city, suburb, town, and rural), and region (Northeast, South, Midwest, and West). One school administrator or a school-level designee completed the survey at each survey wave. Data from survey wave 2 (437 schools; response rate = 27%) and survey wave 3 (423 schools; response rate = 26%) were included in this analysis and weighted to account for nonresponse and design strata.

Respondents who completed at least two surveys of waves 2 to 5 (n = 448) were asked if they would be interested in participating in the qualitative portion of the NSCPS, which included key informant interviews with school administrators and school staff focus groups. Individuals who expressed interest in participating (n = 45) in the qualitative portion comprised the basis of our recruitment sample for the school staff focus groups. Characteristics (i.e., school level, school region, and school size) for the 45 schools were assessed and a smaller sample of 33 was invited to participate in interviews based on school level, school size, and geographic location. This sampling strategy was employed to ensure a diverse and representative sample of schools across those key characteristics. Administrators who completed an interview (n = 21) were then asked to identify potential staff to participate in a focus group discussion. The school staff identified represented the following five occupations: (1) school or district nurse, (2) school counselor or mental health professional, (3) custodian or district facilities manager, (4) teacher, and (5) food service/nutrition director or food service assistant. School staff were sent an email inviting them to participate in a focus group discussion. The inclusion criteria for this study included: (a) school staff currently working in an elementary, middle, or high school; (b) their school must have completed at least two NSCPS surveys; and (c) must be familiar with their school’s implementation of COVID-19 prevention strategies. Due to the low response rate to the invitation to participate in the focus groups, schools that were not selected for participation in key informant interviews but expressed interest in additional data collection were contacted and invited to participate in focus groups. The final focus group sample included 18 school-level staff. Of the 18 school-level staff who participated in this study, 11 were elementary school, five were middle school, and three were high school staff members. Four school staff served as food service directors or assistants, six were teachers, five were school nurses, and three were school counselors. This article presents results from the focus group questions that examined challenges to implementation of school meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Survey wave 2, administered October to November 2021, assessed COVID-19 prevention strategies implemented at the start of the 2021–2022 school year and included questions about school meal distribution. Specifically, questions were asked about where and how breakfast and lunch were served at schools. Survey wave 3 assessed practices that were currently in place at the time of the survey, December 2021 to January 2022, and examined challenges with school meal provision, including challenges with receiving the type and quantity of foods, beverages, or supplies needed for school meal programs. Table 1 presents sample questions from the NSCPS survey waves 2 and 3 related to school meal provisions. Survey waves 2 and 3 were selected because they included questions specific to school meal provision.

The school staff focus group guide was developed through an iterative process of reviewing existing measures and extant literature. The semistructured focus group guide included 32 open-ended questions with additional probes about COVID-19 prevention measures, support, and self-efficacy related to participant experiences working in schools while implementing the prevention measures. Focus group questions assessed how school meal programs were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges with school meal distribution, and factors that facilitated the implementation of school meal programs. Table 2 presents sample focus group questions related to implementation and challenges with school meal provisions.

Weighted percentages (with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) of school meal provision challenges among K-12 public schools, including by locale and school poverty level, were estimated. The percentage of students eligible for FRPM during 2019–2020 served as a proxy for the school poverty level. Chi-square tests were used to test for differences in the percentage of schools reporting each challenge by school-level characteristics; p-values <.05 were considered statistically significant. Additionally, multinomial logistic regression was used to determine if schools with higher levels of FRPM were more likely to experience challenges with school meal provision. There were no other covariates included in the models. To help account for nonresponse bias and produce estimates representative of K-12 public schools, we calculated weights for this analytic sample. Analyses were conducted using R (R Core Team, 2021).

Audio files were transcribed, cleaned, deidentified, and quality checked by the study team. Qualitative data were managed and analyzed using MAXQDA 2022 (VERBI Software, 2021). An initial codebook was developed by the lead author using the discussion guide and relevant literature. To achieve intercoder reliability, 20% of the transcripts were coded independently by two coders to assess consistency, coder agreement, and application of developed codes. Discrepancies were addressed, and intercoder reliability was achieved at Cohen’s Kappa = 0.89. Two coders then used an inductive open and axial coding approach to identify relationships among coded segments and salient categories of information representing themes.

Schools indicated a significant increase in the number of students participating in their school meal programs. One participant mentioned, “Our participation increased like crazy. Before we had maybe a 45% student participation rate, this year we were up to 70%. Which for my little district, that’s a lot. Interestingly, it wasn’t my students receiving free meal benefits that participated more, it was my paying students.” Another participant noted an increase in students receiving school meals, commenting, “At the beginning of the school year, I would say we were about 30,000 meals per day. Pre-pandemic, it was probably sitting around 27,000. At the end of last school year, we were serving 40,000 students a day, and that doesn’t just happen. It takes a lot of people, effort, product, and food to make that happen.” Several focus group participants shared that parents were unaware that free and reduced-priced breakfast was available to students, with one participant commenting, “Breakfast participation doubled. Many of our families didn’t even know that we served breakfast.” Participants reported that the USDA waivers allowed for increased school meal distribution stating, “My ability to feed kids really has everything to do with the USDA regulations.”

Some schools reported adding extra meal periods, delivering meals on buses, or modifying how meals were served, changing from a traditional cafeteria line to individually wrapped meals to meet the needs of students and families. The majority of school staff indicated that their school had to individually wrap all food items as their school’s original meal distribution process allowed students to self-select with one participant commenting, “We have to individually wrap things if the students are selecting it themselves. I am spending money on plastic bags and tape machines. [For example, apples], we need time to wash them and time to have somebody stand there and bag up 600 apples. We used to be able to wash them, put them in the bins when kids could self-select.” Another school staff indicated that “everything must be pre-packaged” and discussed how this was not how their school originally distributed meals. Schools also reported offering drive-through or walk-up meal distribution as well as using school buses to distribute meals to students and families with one participant stating, “We went on school buses, staff members did, and provided lunch and food to people in outlying areas.” Schools expressed challenges with having to pivot and modify their school meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, with one participant sharing, “In the very beginning [of the pandemic], we shifted from a cafeteria-style to in-person dining, take out and pick up. The school was never designed for in-person, take-out, and pick-up. It was not designed for this. It’s hard.”

Several school staff reported that the school meal programs are integral for addressing food insecurity among students and their families. Staff shared that students and families relied on the school meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic for their nutritional intake. One participant commented, “Families in poverty or in transition, they’re dependent for nutrition, information, access to enrichment.” While another participant shared, “The biggest thing is nutrition-wise, making sure that they have an adequate supply of food at their house. A lot of it is having the right food, too.” School staff noted the stark reality that some students only receive meals at school and stressed the importance of students having access to meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. One participant reported, “If it weren’t for summer school, some of our kids wouldn’t be eating. The meals they get here may be the only meal they get all day long.” School staff shared that the school meal programs not only benefited students, but also their families commenting, “We did what we could do to feed these kids and their families, like allowing them to drive up and pick up boxes of food. We did whatever we could to make sure people were eating.” Another participant shared, “We did a lot of curbside meal service. And that was extremely beneficial to families who came to pick up boxes of food. And I think that that made our employees stronger because they knew what an impact their work was having on the community.”

Schools experienced a myriad of challenges when implementing the school meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, schools were not able to get the food and supplies needed for school meal preparation and distribution. One school staff member shared, “For school nutrition, the support was not felt. We were struggling battling deficiencies in food supply and material, trying to get Styrofoam products in so we could serve students.” Another school staff member shared how they had to improvise when they were low on supplies, commenting, “We cut trays in half, we’re talking about clam shell trays, all those kinds of things just to survive. When it comes to support on the nutrition level, that’s what we were muddling through.” Supply chain issues also posed a challenge for the school meal programs. Several school staff shared that deliveries were often late causing disruption to meal distribution. One school staff reported, “I know in my district, right up until the end of school, we were having trouble finding food. We would have late deliveries or nonexistent deliveries. Our menu was constantly being adjusted due to whatever food that was available.” Given the supply chain issues, some food directors/managers relied on local stores to purchase school meals for students. One participant commented on how their school’s food director had to go to local grocery stores to purchase some foods needed for the school meal programs, “I know our food director was making trips to Walmart and Stop and Shop whatever grocery store USA to try to buy in bulk what he could to meet the needs he had. And then try to find the gluten-free food, dairy-free food, soy-free food, it was a lot. Nearly impossible task, I don’t know how we did it, I really don’t.”

In addition to limited supplies and supply chain issues, staffing was noted as a major challenge to implementing the school meal programs. Several schools indicated that there was a great deal of staff turnover among their food services staff. One staff commented about the growing availability of food services positions stating, “Our job postings are super high, there was a lot of attrition. Call it whatever you want, but a lot of people left their positions recently over the past few years. Retirement became a much more viable option for a lot of folks.” School staff noted that it is difficult to recruit individuals for food services positions and indicated that this became even more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. One school staff mentioned, “And it’s really hard to find people who want these positions. Finding people to fill our positions now is harder than ever. It’s harder than ever to fill school nutrition positions, because they’re just a hard position to fill. Service worker position is hard to fill, especially during this pandemic.”