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The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in school closures and required school nutrition directors to shift their methods of executing the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The procurement of items, the composition of meals, and meal delivery were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Responding to these changes, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released several waivers allowing for flexibility in meal patterns and meal delivery, while maintaining federal reimbursements to schools. Although school meals have yet to reach pre-pandemic participation numbers, school districts nationwide have experienced the effects of supply chain disruptions, therein impacting their ability to meet the nutritional standards of the NSLP and SBP. To mitigate supply chain issues and provide consistent, quality meals, School Food Authorities needed to leverage USDA's additional funding and waivers by continuing to innovate, establish, and communicate best practices for effective meal delivery.
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PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic affected foodservice operations within urban Kansas childcare centers. METHODS: Three COVID-19-related questions were added to an online survey of Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) participating childcare centers located throughout Kansas. Responses were collected from July through August, 2020. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of open-ended responses were used to identify common concerns. RESULTS: Seventy-nine of the 138 childcare centers invited to complete the COVID-19-related questions responded (57.2% participation rate). The majority (n=56, 70.1%) reported decreased enrollment, whereas a small number (n=9, 11.4%) reported an increase. Approximately twothirds of the centers (n=49, 62.0%) reported foodservice operation modifications owing to COVID-19-related challenges. Three overarching themes were discovered within the centers' responses: (a) procurement challenges including decreased availability and increased cost of foods, (b) changes in meal service including shifting to disposable tableware and ceasing familystyle meal service, and (c) menu and production changes in response to enrollment changes and product availability issues. APPLICATION TO CHILD NUTRITION PROFESSIONALS: Future consideration for CACFP participants include shifting to more shelf-stable foods when faced with food availability issues and utilizing more cost-effective food purchasing options, which might be attained through group purchasing organizations. Well-developed emergency plans such as emergency menus should include plans for procurement challenges. Resources and training to increase understanding and knowledge of CACFP meal pattern guidelines may make menu changes based on availability easier or less challenging. Best practice guidelines, such as family-style meals, may have to take health and safety measures into consideration. As centers continue to experience COVID-19-related issues and plan for a "return to normal", child nutrition professionals can fulfill an important role in helping centers adapt their foodservice operations to meet the challenge.
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Objective: To investigate the implementation status of school lunches and simplified school lunches after a state of emergency was declared due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and the content of a simplified school lunch.
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Background: Community-based management of acute malnutrition is implementing in Ethiopia but there is scarce information in our study set up regarding the time to recovery and its predictors of severe acute malnutrition among 6 to 59 months children, so this study aimed to assess the time to recovery and its predictors for uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition among 6 to 59 children managed at the outpatient therapeutic program in north Shewa zone, Ethiopia.
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This article describes how an ongoing nutrition-smart programming approach was employed by the African Development Bank and harnessed as part of its COVID-19 response intervention.
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Due to the impact of the pandemic, Brazil suspended, in mid-March 2020, classes and on-site activities throughout the municipal, state and federal education system. In view of this scenario full of challenges and missions that the PNAE had to take ownership of, the Collaborating Centers for Food and Nutrition (CECANEs) have became important services to enable the proper distribution of the kits and the operation of the program. It is an experience report based on CECANE/UFRN own actions, results and reports. From the survey carried out with the 167 municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte, assisted by CECANE/UFRN, the panorama regarding the distribution of school feeding kits was observed, highlighting the different situations and difficulties faced during the execution. Guidance actions were carried out on the assembly and distribution of school feeding kits, accountability and participation in social control. The work aims to establish and legitimize the role of CECANE in the defense of Human Right to Adequate Food (DHAA) and Food and Nutrition Security (SAN) in the school feeding scenario and reinforces the importance of investigations about the logistics of assembling and distributing the kits in the national territory, showing the diversity and local difficulties.
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School meals are a right enshrined in the Federal Constitutional of Brazil, and it is the duty of the State to guarantee them to all students enrolled in the public basic education network. The main way to carry out this guarantee has been through the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). Since March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the pandemic by COVID-19, several measures have been taken to control the disease, including the suspension of face-to-face classes, putting at risk the guarantee of the human right to school feeding in public school system. In view of this, this article, through a review, presents and discusses the reframing process and the challenges faced by PNAE in the context of the pandemic. It addresses the main changes that occurred with the enactment of Law n degrees . 13.987/2020, regulated by Resolution CD/FNDE n degrees 02/2020, which authorized, exceptionally, during the period of suspension of classes, the distribution of foodstuffs purchased with program resources to students' families. In addition, it presents the modalities adopted by the Executing Entities and the attributions of the different school feeding actors in the country, in the context of the pandemic, highlighting their reflexes on the food and nutritional security of this public.
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spread in India is steeply rising. A 21-day lockdown has been imposed by the Government of India, to curtail its spread. This has impacted all walks of life, including availability of food and nutrition related services which would affect nutritional status of children throughout India. The two major schemes, i.e. Integrated Child Development Services Scheme and Mid-day Meal Scheme have been affected leading to risk of worsening of child nutrition. Some states have evolved their own strategies to mitigate the effect of lockdown. Here we discuss the challenges and way forward for ensuring availability of food for child nutrition during this health crisis. No single, optimal response to a public health emergency exists. The government and non-government partners must coordinate and scale up child nutrition services in the community through strengthening of public distribution system and home delivery of food parcels wherever feasible for beneficiaries of child nutrition programs.
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The rise of the global overweight and obesity epidemic can be attributed to the rise of modern retail and food service delivery sectors in all countries, has led to changes in the agricultural and food systems, thereby increasing affordability and access to foods and less nutritious drinks. The consequences of school closures on the economic security and well-being of children, their families and their communities are likely to reverse the progress in education over the past decades. Prioritizing children's return to school and using school as a platform to improve nutrition and health will have a huge impact on future generations. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been more impetus and opportunity to bring together governments, donors, organizations and communities in education, health and nutrition. Countries must reframe their efforts to ensure health and nutrition services begin in the first 1,000 days and continue for the next 7,000 days. They must focus their attention on middle school ages globally so that students have access to quality, healthier meals and better learning opportunities. This will strengthen the initial investments in the first 1,000 days and lay a strong foundation for the future of children and their society.
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Even in high-income countries like Israel, children have been particularly vulnerable to the surge in food insecurity driven by quarantines, unemployment, and economic hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under normal circumstances, School Feeding Programs (SFPs) can help to ensure child food security. In the wake of the pandemic, policy makers worldwide have been challenged to adapt national SFPs to provide nutritional support to children (and indirectly to their families) during extended school closures. Most national SFPs implemented contingency plans to ensure continued nutritional support for children. In Israel, where SFPs were largely suspended during long periods of mandated school closing, there was a loss of 30-50% of feeding days for the ~ 454,000 children enrolled in the program. The lack of emergency contingency planning and failure to maintain Israeli SFPs during school closures reveals longstanding structural policy flaws that hindered coordination between relevant ministries and authorities and impeded the mobilization of funds and existing programs to meet the emergent need. The school feeding law does not identify child food security as an explicit aim, there are no benchmarks for monitoring and evaluating the program to ensure that the food aid reaches the children most in need, even routinely, and the Ministry of Education had no obligation to maintain the program and to marshal data on the participants that could be acted upon in the emergency. Moreover, because Israeli SFPs are "selective", in other words, implemented according to community risk (low-income, high poverty rate) and geographical factors, attendant stigma and financial burdens can make participation in the program less attractive to families and communities that need them the most. We argue that Israel should make urgent, long-term improvements to the SFPs as follows: First, eliminating childhood food insecurity should be made an explicit goal of legislation in the broader context of national social, health, and nutritional goals, and this includes ensuring SFPs are maintained during emergencies. Second, the government should assume responsibility for the routine assessment and data collection on food insecurity among Israeli children. Third, SFPs should be subjected to rigorous independent program evaluation. Finally, a "universal" SFP providing nutritious diets would likely improve the health of all Israeli children, across all socioeconomic backgrounds. These steps to guarantee that Israeli children have food to realize their full physical and cognitive potential would emphasize Israel's firm commitment to support multiple dimensions of health, educational achievement, and societal values, to combat the complex and long-term consequences of the pandemic, and to prepare for the next one.
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COVID-19 , Pandemics , Child , Food Insecurity , Humans , Israel/epidemiology , Policy , SARS-CoV-2 , SchoolsABSTRACT
South Africa has a well established National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP). Despite rescheduling the mealtime to two hours after the start of the school day to accommodate learners who come to school on an empty stomach, a gap still exists as many children start their learning day with low energy and concentration levels. A costeffective, energy-dense snack served at the start of the school day can be a solution to sustain learners until the main meal is served. Cross-sectional surveys were used to determine the snack preferences of children and the product development process was used to develop a suitable snack. An energy-dense peanut butter biscuit was developed based on those surveys as well as a scoping review of previous snack studies. The energydense developed product provided 1388kJ (61.0%) of energy from fat, 688kJ (30.2%) of energy from carbohydrates and 201kJ (8.8%) of energy from protein per 100g. The biscuit conformed to microbial testing standards. Shelf-life analysis projected a shelf-life of five weeks fresh and five months in food grade packaging. Sensory results showed that there was no significant difference in sensory scores across gender (p=0.691) and age (p=0.706). More of the learners (n=56, 69.1%) found the biscuit to be 'Super good' than the other ratings (p < .0005). When compared with similar biscuit products currently on the market, it was found that the developed biscuit was the most reasonably priced. The developed biscuit has the potential to serve as a solution to hidden hunger for children that come to school on an empty stomach. This versatile snack solution has potential for continuity of use even during periods of national crisis as with COVID-19, when learners' nutritional needs may be most vulnerable.
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A survey was conducted in Kano State-Nigeria aimed at exploring the travails of the dry-land farmers of the state amidst Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The exercise was carried out in 8 Local Government Areas marked out in two sampling units within the metropolis and outside the metropolis. Within the Kano metropolis were Nassarawa, Ungogo, Tarauni and Dala;while Madobi, Minjiibir, Garun Mallam and Dambatta were outside the metropolitan. The enumeration thus pointed to the complete halt of all activities in the state during the ill-fated lockdown which was coupled with hunger, starvation, alongside stringent survival strategies;difficult access to agricultural imputes aids;and the effects on farming activities, among others. Structured interview was employed with a total of 120 respondents, using Availability Sampling Technique. However, food insecurity and malnutrition in Nigeria is as a result of the non implementation of the national and conventional food policy and agricultural programs. Nonetheless, in this critical time of economic pressure and the insurgence of Covid-19 pandemic, it is very important therefore to improve the budget allocation to the agricultural sector, as well as sustainable agricultural policy improvement programs by giving very compelling priority for nutrition on the agenda of the government, and enforcing a vibrant policy at aiding these dry-land farmers from whom the bulk of the global food production emanates.
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BACKGROUND: School feeding programs (SFPs) can play a crucial role in the emergency food and nutrition response, but there is a dearth of information on how SFPs operate during emergencies. DESIGN AND METHODS: A rapid comparative assessment of 11 SFPs throughout Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from (1) systematic document search and (2) surveys with key informants (n = 23) about barriers/facilitators to modifications were systematically analyzed using a multiple case study approach. RESULTS: During the pandemic, all SFPs continued (although continuation plans varied from a few days in Chile to > 1 month in Puerto Rico) via food kits, food vouchers, and/or grab n' go meals. The SFP implementation was highly dependent on the programs' autonomy and financial support, which impacted their logistics to acquire and distribute foods during the pandemic. The types of foods offered in some SFPs suggest that established nutritional guidelines were not always followed. Key informants expressed concerns about the deterioration of the nutritional quality of foods offered during the pandemic and lack of community engagement that impeded distribution to the neediest. CONCLUSIONS: Results underscore the urgency for clear implementation guidance on how to modify SFP during emergencies. Public health implications include (1) allocation of autonomous resources to an intersectoral working group to safeguard nutritional benefits during emergencies, (2) strengthening efforts of SFP community engagement before and during emergencies, and (3) establishing guidelines of the types of foods that can be distributed to meet the nutritional needs of beneficiaries during emergencies.
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COVID-19 , Pandemics , Caribbean Region , Humans , Latin America/epidemiology , Pandemics/prevention & control , SARS-CoV-2 , SchoolsABSTRACT
A vast majority of the relief and rehabilitation packages announced in the months following the nationwide lockdown in India have focused on economic rehabilitation. However, the education sector has remained absent from this effort, including in India's central government's 250 billion dollar stimulus package. In this paper, we discuss the implications of lockdown-induced school and rural child-care center closures on education and health outcomes for the urban and rural poor. We especially focus on food and nutritional security of children who depend on school feeding and supplementary nutrition programs. We argue that the impacts are likely to be much more severe for girls as well as for children from already disadvantaged ethnic and caste groups. We also discuss ways in which existing social security programs can be leveraged and strengthened to ameliorate these impacts.