I was Project Manager for a USDA-funded study of the Emergency Meals to You program.
An estimated 29.4 million children benefit from the services provided by the National School Lunch Program offered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)(USDA, 2020). This program provides food access for children who qualify for free or reduced priced lunches at school. However, the COVID-19 pandemic left thousands of school-aged children with limited access to essential meal services provided by public schools.
On March 17, 2020, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Baylor Collaborative, McLane Global, and PepsiCo announced a plan to deliver meals to students in rural areas affected by COVID-19 school closures. This effort, Emergency Meals to You (EMtY), is an expansion of a pilot the Collaborative conducted in 2019 called Meals to You. During this pilot project in summer 2019, The Collaborative provided over 475,000 meals to 4,000 children. Boxes were shipped weekly to children and teens in rural areas where traditional summer meal sites were unavailable.
The EMtY program was much larger than the pilot project:
- Almost 40 million meals were provided for children affected by nationwide school closures over the summer of 2020
- The program was rolled out across 43 states and reached as many as 127,00 households and 348 school districts
- Boxes contained 20 nutritious meals (10 breakfasts and 10 lunches) to cover what would normally be received at school over two school weeks
- It was a multi-sectoral program that included leaders from the business, government, and academic sectors.
A video summary of the EMtY program is available:
https://www.baylor.edu/hungerandpoverty/
To build on the success of EMTY, USDA funded a Baylor-run study to use the lessons learned to develop a disaster plan for future programs and examine options for enhancing food security in at risk communities. This included nine interviews, three focus groups (n=11) and five workshops (n=69) with people involved in EMTY, food service delivery, emergency management and other aspects of the food system. By leveraging this knowledge and experience, a 13-point action plan was developed. The primary recommendations developed during the study include:
1. Local emergency managers integrate food sector stakeholders into activities, explore food access needs, and share findings with community organizations, private sector, and government agencies.
2. Schools establish a fully procurable menu that is costed and compliant with school needs and the USDA.
3. Strengthen environmental health services at schools and other support functions required for the health and well-being of children.
4. Emergency management systems exercise plans, agreements, protocols, and for providing food during a disaster situation.
5. Establish early warning systems for food-related emergencies.
6. Explore food availability/access risks and identify strategies for mitigating impacts.
7. Share data about nutritional and chronic health (e.g., allergies) needs from schools with the local emergency management committee.
8. Develop disaster plans for sustaining food supply and access at the school district level.
9. Map local food sector capacities and surge needs, including from farm to table.
10. Increase availability of the food sector workforce with relevant competencies and skills.
11. A nationwide application of the United Nations Food System Resilience, which was piloted and developed as part of this project.
12. Conduct a nationwide survey to allow a ranking and prioritization of the actions identified at school, local, regional, and national levels across different USDA regions and settings.
13. Explore adapting eMTY to address food insecurity for older adults.
Food system resilience is vital to mitigate the consequences of disasters and other crises on community and individual well-being. Addressing this timely need by delivering on the actions recommended would promulgate coordination of community networks that can pivot quickly to emergency production and distribution. It is difficult to solve complex problems such as improving food security during an emergency, so it is hoped this study and report can provide concrete guidance to improving food system and community resilience prior to future pandemics and disasters.
