SNA surveyed its school nutrition director members in the fall of 2024 to evaluate current challenges, understand the state of school nutrition program finances and staffing, examine concerns regarding forthcoming nutrition standards, and assess menu trends.
Executive Summary
Challenges for School Meal Programs
- The top 5 challenges for school meal programs, calculated by combining the percentages of each item rated as ‘moderate’ or ‘significant’ challenges, are:
- Food costs – 97.9% (n = 1,368)
- Labor costs – 94.9% (n = 1,297)
- Equipment costs – 91.4% (n = 1,248)
- Staff Shortages – 88.7% (n = 1,216)
- Procurement issues (e.g. long lead times, substitutions, late deliveries, insufficient bid responses) – 86.8% (n = 1,183)
Refer to Appendix A for response summary tables on each challenge, disaggregated by USDA FNS region, free-and-reduced percentage rate, district enrollment and other selected variables.
Several statistically significant associations were identified, including:
- The Southeast FNS region was the only region to report significant challenges with food costs, labor costs, and equipment costs at statistically significant levels higher than the overall reported rates of these challenges.
- Food costs were rated as a significant challenge at the highest rates by respondents in the Mid-Atlantic (82.7%, n = 86), the Southeast (79.9%, n = 187), and the Southwest (74.1%, n = 140) FNS regions.
- As district enrollment size increases, so does the percentage of respondents reporting significant challenges with labor costs. The percentage of respondents from the category with the highest number of students (25,000+) is 12 percentage points higher than the overall percentage.
- As district enrollment increases, so does the percentage of respondents reporting significant challenges with staff shortages. The percentage of respondents from the category with the highest number of students (25,000+) was 6.7% higher than the overall average.
- The rate of respondents reporting significant challenges with procurement issues (e.g. long lead times, substitutions, late deliveries, insufficient bid responses) was highest for districts with 25,000+ students (7.1% higher than the overall average) and lowest for districts with <1,000 students (6.1% lower than the overall average).
- 89.7% (n = 559) of respondents that do not serve all meals free rated getting families to submit free-and-reduced meal applications/household income forms as a moderate or serious challenge, compared to 51.6% (n = 389) of respondents that do serve all meals free.
Meal Prices and Unpaid Meal Debt
- The reported median per meal charge for students who pay full price for reimbursable meals increased in all categories for both breakfast and lunch from SY 2023/24 to SY 2024/25. For breakfast, the increases ranged from a 2.9% increase at the elementary level to an 11.1% increase at the high school level. Meanwhile, lunch price increases ranged from a 3.3% increase at the middle school level to a 4.9% increase at the high school level.
- The percentage of respondents reporting that their school nutrition program serves breakfast free to all students districtwide increased from 59.1% last year to 63.3% this year. Comparing back one year further, to SY 2022/23, there has been a 13.3% increase. The percentage of respondents reporting they serve lunch free to all students districtwide increased from 49.3% last year to 56.2% this year. Comparing back one year further, to SY 2022/23, there has been a 16.9% increase.[1]
- Among respondents that do not offer free meals to all students, 96.8% reported challenges with unpaid school meal charges/debt. Other reported challenges include families in need not receiving free and reduced-price benefits (89.3%), paperwork/administrative burden (88.7%), students going hungry/choosing not to eat (73.5%) and stigma for low-income students (68.9%).
- Median reported unpaid debt increased 25.6% from $5,495 (n = 808) in fall of 2023 to $6,900 (n = 766) in fall of 2024. This continues the nearly decade-long trend of increasing median unpaid meal debt. The reported unpaid meal debt of $6,900 in fall 2024 was 102.9% higher than the median reported unpaid debt in SY 2017/18 ($3,400, n = 570) and 245.0% higher than the median reported unpaid debt in SY 2014/15 ($2,000, n=627).
- Notably, the largest percentages of directors reporting unpaid debt are from the Mountain Plains and the Midwest FNS regions, those programs with <26% free-and-reduced rate, and those programs not serving free meals to all students. In particular, the percentage of directors reporting unpaid meal debt that are not serving all meals free to all students is nearly 3.5 times higher than directors at programs serving all meals free to all students. There is also an inverse relationship between free-and-reduced percentage and reporting unpaid meal debt: the percentage of programs with <26% free-and-reduced rate reported having unpaid debt was three times higher than programs with >65% free-and-reduced.
Funding, Financial Sustainability, and Staffing
- 62.6% of directors (n = 852) said the NSLP/SBP reimbursement rates were not sufficient to cover the cost of producing a breakfast and over two-thirds of directors (67.4%, n = 912) said they were not sufficient to cover the costs of producing a lunch.
- 92.1% (n = 1,258) of responding directors reported serious or moderate concern for the financial sustainability of their school meal programs three years from now, compared to 91.6% (n = 1,183) of responding directors who responded the same in SY 2023/24.
- 71.66% (n = 977) of respondents reported having at least one current staff vacancy. The overall vacancy rate of 8.7% is higher than the accommodation and food services industry job vacancy rate of 6.2% in October 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- The highest vacancy rates were reported by respondents in the Mid-Atlantic (12.76%, n=107) and those in districts with 25,000+ students (9.54%, n=141).
Federal School Nutrition Standards: Final Rule Concerns
- The highest and most acute levels of concern regarding new federal school nutrition requirements established under the final rule are those effective July 1, 2027:
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- 78.6% of respondents (n = 1,053) reported ‘serious concern’ about the mandate to meet sodium limits that mirror Target 2 (a 10% reduction for breakfast and 15% for lunch)
- 64.6% of respondents (n = 865) report ‘serious concern’ about the standard to limit added sugars to <10% of calories per week in school lunch and breakfast.
- While there is concern regarding July 1, 2025, product-based added sugar limits (78.4%, n = 1,044 reports moderate/serious concern regarding flavored milk limits, for instance), it is not as acute as the concern for requirements effective in 2027.
- The top 3 methods programs have implemented to reduce added sugar in school breakfasts are:
- Offer fresh produce in place of fruit with added sugar (64.7%, n =851)
- Increase meat/meat alternative options (37.6%, n = 492)
- Increase scratch preparation (36.0%, n = 472)
- When asked about resources needed to achieve compliance with forthcoming limits on sodium and sugar:
- 82.1% (n= 184) of responding programs from the Southeast FNS region reported ‘extreme need’ for increased funding, which was 12.6% higher than the overall percentage of all programs reporting ‘extreme need’ for increased funding (69.5%, n = 926).
- 47.7% (n=62) of responding districts with 25,000+ students reported ‘extreme need’ for additional staff, which was 13.6% higher than the overall percentage of all responding programs reporting ‘extreme need’ for additional staff (34.1%, n = 454).
Menu Trends
- 76.7% (n = 949) of respondents report their program offers scratch-prepared entrees on a daily or weekly basis. 70.6% (n = 839) of respondents report their program offers locally-grown/raised foods on a daily or weekly basis.
- Respondents from the largest districts (10,000+ students) and from districts with 26% or less free-and-reduced rate reported the highest rates of providing plant-based entrees on a daily or weekly basis.
- Respondents from the Northeast FNS region (44.4%, n = 56) and from districts with less than 26% free-and-reduced rate (36.7%, n = 66) reported the highest rates of providing customizable or made-to-order options.
- School nutrition programs offering free meals to all students districtwide may do so through several means: Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) districtwide, local or state provision of free meals for all students, or a combination of the previous. At the time of writing, eight states (California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont) have dedicated state funds to provide free school meals permanently.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Table 1. Job openings levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted”, last modified January 7, 2025. Accessed on 1/7/2025. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t01.htm