{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T01:47:25Z","timestamp":1773884845214,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]],"date-time":"2021-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627603200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Public Health Nutr."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec id=\"S1368980021003141_as1\"><jats:title>Objectives:<\/jats:title><jats:p>To explore best practices and challenges in providing school meals during COVID-19 in a low-income, predominantly Latino, urban\u2013rural region.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"S1368980021003141_as2\"><jats:title>Design:<\/jats:title><jats:p>Semi-structured interviews with school district stakeholders and focus groups with parents were conducted to explore school meal provision during COVID-19 from June to August 2020. Data were coded and themes were identified to guide analysis. Community organisations were involved in all aspects of study design, recruitment, data collection and analysis.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"S1368980021003141_as3\"><jats:title>Setting:<\/jats:title><jats:p>Six school districts in California\u2019s San Joaquin Valley.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"S1368980021003141_as4\"><jats:title>Participants:<\/jats:title><jats:p>School district stakeholders (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>11) included food service directors, school superintendents and community partners (e.g. funders, food cooperative). Focus groups (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>6) were comprised of parents (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>29) of children participating in school meal programmes.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"S1368980021003141_as5\"><jats:title>Results:<\/jats:title><jats:p>COVID-19-related challenges for districts included developing safe meal distribution systems, boosting low participation, covering COVID-19-related costs and staying informed of policy changes. Barriers for families included transportation difficulties, safety concerns and a lack of fresh foods. Innovative strategies to address obstacles included pandemic-electronic benefits transfer (EBT), bus-stop delivery, community pick-up locations, batched meals and leveraging partner resources.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"S1368980021003141_as6\"><jats:title>Conclusions:<\/jats:title><jats:p>A focus on fresher, more appealing meals and greater communication between school officials and parents could boost participation. Districts that leveraged external partnerships were better equipped to provide meals during pandemic conditions. In addition, policies increasing access to fresh foods and capitalising on United States Department of Agriculture waivers could boost school meal participation. Finally, partnering with community organisations and acting upon parent feedback could improve school meal systems, and in combination with pandemic-EBT, address childhood food insecurity.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1017\/s1368980021003141","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]],"date-time":"2021-07-30T03:10:08Z","timestamp":1627614608000},"page":"1063-1073","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":29,"title":["Mitigating childhood food insecurity during COVID-19: a qualitative study of how school districts in California\u2019s San Joaquin Valley responded to growing needs"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6292-5864","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ashley H","family":"Jowell","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Janine S","family":"Bruce","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gabriela V","family":"Escobar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Valeria M","family":"Ordonez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christina A","family":"Hecht","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anisha I","family":"Patel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"S1368980021003141_ref36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/01.NNR.0000313482.33917.7d"},{"key":"S1368980021003141_ref31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/1468-0009.12184"},{"key":"S1368980021003141_ref39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/intqhc\/mzm042"},{"key":"S1368980021003141_ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.2020.305875"},{"key":"S1368980021003141_ref25","unstructured":"25. 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California Department of Social Services (2020) Pandemic EBT 1.0: Outcomes Report. https:\/\/www.cdss.ca.gov\/Portals\/9\/EBT\/Pandemic\/P-EBT-Outcomes-Report.pdf (accessed January 2021)."},{"key":"S1368980021003141_ref17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jneb.2020.09.018"}],"container-title":["Public Health Nutrition"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S1368980021003141","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,6]],"date-time":"2023-11-06T17:22:56Z","timestamp":1699291376000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S1368980021003141\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]]},"references-count":44,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,5]]}},"alternative-id":["S1368980021003141"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/s1368980021003141","relation":{},"ISSN":["1368-9800","1475-2727"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1368-9800","type":"print"},{"value":"1475-2727","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]]},"assertion":[{"value":"\u00a9 The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}]}}