Beginning in school year 2022-2023, California will become the first state to implement a statewide Universal Meals Program for school children. California's Universal Meals Program is designed to build on the foundations of the federal National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP). Nutrition Policy Institute researcher Wendi Gosliner shared preliminary results of how the school nutrition community has implemented the meal programs during the 2021-22 school year and how they are thinking about this new program at a webinar hosted by the California Local School Wellness Policy on Thursday, June 2, 2022. Results were collected from a February 2022 survey of just over half of California's school food service directors. This project was funded by the California state legislative office.

The Nutrition Policy Institute's CalFresh Healthy Living evaluation team analyzed data from a stratified, random sample of 190 CalFresh Healthy Living-eligible school districts in California to better understand equitable school meal distribution and changes in meal participation during COVID-19 school closures. Researchers found total school meals served decreased by a median of 46% between May 2019 and May 2020. While districts did a commendable job providing information and meals to families during school closures, there were gaps in communication about school meal eligibility requirements and menus. Additionally, while districts placed more school meal distribution sites in lower-income areas, the number of school meal distribution sites was not proportionate to the size of the population in those areas. The study was published in Preventive Medicine Reports. Researchers offer actionable steps and recommendations in an accompanying research brief for how programs like CalFresh Healthy Living can better support schools and provide equitable meal access during emergency school closures. The study and research brief are timely and important because emergency school closures will likely occur in the future as communities cope with floods, fires and other natural disasters. This work was conducted under contract with the California Department of Public Health with funding from the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed).

Nearly half of the 14,500 tons of solid waste generated by public schools in the US is food packaging. University of California researchers have created a standardized method to measure this waste as a first step toward reducing it. They started by evaluating methods used to quantify and categorize the types of food packaging waste generated and how it is disposed of in school foodservice settings in a new publication in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The article debuts a proposed new instrument–Waste Audit for Sustainable Transitions and Evaluations (WASTE)–to help the research community better measure and understand food packaging waste in US school foodservice. The study was led by UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management doctoral candidate Jessica Heiges in collaboration with Danielle Lee, Wendi Gosliner and Lorrene Ritchie from the UC Nutrition Policy Institute, Hannah Thompson and Kristine Madsen from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Kate O'Neill from the UC Berkeley Department of ESPM, Laura Vollmer from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Kate Wobbekind from San Francisco Unified School District. This research was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant number 2020-68015-30736.

Through the California Universal Meals Program public school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools will provide breakfast and lunch at no charge to students requesting a meal, regardless of their free or reduced-price meal eligibility during each school day. On Tues., May 17, 2022, at 2 p.m., the California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division (NSD) is hosting the seventh listening session for the newly established California Universal Meals Program beginning in School Year 2022­–23. Wendi Gosliner, a researcher from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Nutrition Policy Institute, will share the early results of surveys conducted with families and members of the school nutrition community. The target audience for the listening session includes all state and local school nutrition professionals, superintendents, school business officials, and community partners involved in school meal service. This listening session is free and participants can attend online or over the telephone using Zoom. Please register in advance.