(P02-090-25) Examining the Synergistic Impact of State and Federal Policies on School Meal Participation in Arizona

Objectives: The pandemic-era federal Universal Free Meals (UFM) program ended in Fall 2022 when schools returned to the means-tested three-tiered system. In January 2023, Arizona expanded access to free school meals for reduced-price eligible students. Two additional federal policies were implemented in 2023-24 – the USDA Medicaid Direct Certification allowing students from Medicaid households to be directly certified for free meals, and expansion of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) that allows low-income schools to offer free meals to all students. We examined the impact of state and federal policies on school meal participation by school level factors.

Methods: Meal participation data were collected from the Arizona Department of Education (August 2022-May 2024), and school level data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Using an observational study design we assessed 1) average daily meal participation rate (ADPr) and 2) average number of total meals served each day by eligibility categories over four time periods: T1 (three-tiered system), T2 (Arizona reduced-price co-pay policy), T3 (Arizona policy with Medicaid Direct Certification), and T4 (Arizona policy with Medicaid Direct Certification and CEP expansion/mid-year enrollment).

Results: ADPr for meals served across all eligibility categories increased by 2.3% for breakfast, and 3.8% for lunch in T2 compared to T1. After the implementation of all three policies (T4), ADPr for breakfast and lunch increased by 7.2% and 9% respectively. Similar increase in ADPr were observed across all school level factors except for breakfast in American Indian majority schools. With all three policies in place (T4), the total number of free breakfasts and lunches served per day went up by 27.1% and 26.6% compared to T1, respectively as more students became eligible for free meals due to the two federal policies.

Conclusions: Synergistic implementation of state and federal policies increased access to healthy school meals for Arizona students.

Funding Sources: This study was funded by Arizona Food Bank Network.