There is a problem with many schools all around the country having to close or have modified school hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting programs like free and reduced meals. Despite schools having no difficulty providing these meals for students during school hours, some difficulty in safely and effectively distributing these meals is occurring. It is difficult for school districts to provide meals at every single school, while following safety guidelines and equal accessibility. This problem has negatively impacted many families and students attending schools around the country because the meals they typically rely on for their students are possibly being affected. A possible cause of this problem is that the COVID-19 closures are negatively affecting the accessibility of free meal programs. Perhaps a study which investigates how accessibility of free meal programs in public primary schools in Pierce County, WA has been affected by a questionnaire focusing on different aspects such as time, location, etc. could remedy this situation.
The value of this topic is significant because it is very relevant today. We are living in this pandemic right now, and for the foreseeable future schools will be closed or affected in some way in Pierce County. Free and reduced lunch and meal programs are very important to lower income families, who rely on school to give their child at least one meal a day. Research about accessibility being affected by the school closures could show if those families are still able to use these as a source for meals, or if they are struggling to access them.
I predict that accessibility of free meals at the public primary schools in Pierce County, WA will be negatively affected due to the COVID-19 closures. With the limitations due to CDC safety guidelines as well as resource limitations for families I think that the meals will not be able to be equally accessible.
According to Washington State Legislature: School districts shall implement a school lunch program in each public school in the district in which educational services are provided to children in any of the grades kindergarten through four and in which twenty-five percent or more of the enrolled students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch.
I think there will be limitations and challenges in gaining participations from schools while doing random sampling, if they are willing to give me the data I am looking for. I also see possible limitations in the changing seasons and updates with school closures throughout the year, because these factors might affect different programs or methods schools are using to provide meals.
The data for this study was gathered through a quantitative questionnaire. The questions themselves provide qualitative answers, but those answers were processed into quantitative results using a predetermined point system criteria. The questionnaire includes a mixed variety of questions, including multiple choice and open-ended, as well as open-ended options on each for further elaboration if a subject feels that they don’t identify with any given answer. This method gives the opportunity for participants to provide individualized, qualitative responses towards the information about each district and their individual methods to provide meals during these conditions.
The questionnaire was completed by 6 of the potential 13 nutritional directors representing the 14 school districts in Pierce County. Looking at the general results collected from the questionnaire, the most points were earned in favor of current accessibility, resulting in the finding that accessibility of the free meal programs has seen an increase since the school closures. All six school districts experienced no change in the existence of a free meal program, meaning they all had one prior to COVID-19 and maintained it throughout the closures. Similarly, five out of the six districts experienced no change in the days of the week meals were served. Five out of the six school districts experienced an increase in accessibility with this factor, meaning that the students in their districts had to be verified in order to receive free meals prior to COVID-19, but since the changes from the pandemic, students are able to receive free meals without verification.
Looking at each factor, these results can help to encourage school districts to evaluate how their systems are not only providing accessible means of meal access for their students, but also where they can improve. If an accessibility increase was experienced during this change, what specific factors caused this increase, and can they be implemented into the regular meal program system, not just during special circumstances. Conversely, if there were factors that were negatively impacted, how can districts strengthen their systems to avoid negative consequences if a similar situation were to arise. In evaluating how this pandemic has highlighted the strengths and insecurities of the systems within schools, they can be addressed in order to bring these systems to their full potential.
From the results and findings, it was concluded that overall, the accessibility of free meal programs increased during the COVID-19 based school closures. From each individual factor's data and frequency, it can be concluded that the existence of a free meal program and the days of the week meals were served had no impact on the change in accessibility. Similarly, it can be concluded that the verification of students participating had a strong impact on the increase of accessibility. Overall, my original hypothesis and assumptions were refuted.
In order to expand this research and increase the significance of its findings, expanding the scope of research to compare how schools and districts state-to-state handled these changes, or even looking at country-wide data to further examine the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic produced would be beneficial. Exploring other areas in schools and education and the effects that COVID-19 has had on them, potentially how the changes in accessibility of school meals have affected students, or how the abrupt transition to online learning styles have affected student performances could be researched. These inquiries would help to further fill the gap in understanding that the COVID-19 virus has created in this field of research.
Key Sources:
OSPI Child Nutrition Services: COVID-19 Impact to Meals Served. (2020, December). Retrieved January 24, 2021, from https://k12.wa.us/policy-funding/child-nutrition/washington-state-child-nutrition-programs
OSPI Reopening Washington Schools 2020: School
Nutrition Programs. (2020). Retrieved January 24, 2021,
from https://k12.wa.us/policy-funding/child-
nutrition/washington-state-child nutrition-programs
Kinsey, E. W., PhD., Hecht, A. A., PhD., Dunn, C. G., PhD., Levi, R., M.P.H., Read, M. A., Ma, Smith, C., M.P.P., . . . Hager, E. R., PhD. (2020). School closures during COVID-19: Opportunities for innovation in meal service. American Journal of Public Health, 110(11), 1635-1643. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2W5/AJPH.2020.305875
Wolfson, J. A.,PhD.M.P.P., & Leung, C. W.,ScD.M.P.H. (2020). Food insecurity during COVID-19: An acute crisis with long-term health implications. American Journal of Public Health, 110(12), 1763-1765. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305953