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Articles by Saied Toossi
The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends, and Issues, 2024 Edition
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation's second largest food and nutrition assistance program, providing billions of meals to tens of millions of children and adolescents each year. The USDA, Economic Research Service periodically reports NSLP policies and program operations, often following major changes to the programs rules and guidelines. The last such report was published in 2008.
USDA’s Temporary Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) Program Issued $70.9 Billion in Benefits From 2020 to 2023
Finding: Food & Nutrition Assistance States and territories wishing to participate in the program were required to develop a plan for identifying qualified households and how benefits would be distributed to them, and then submit these plans to USDA for approval. Depending on the State or territory, P-EBT benefits were issued retroactively in a lump sum or in multiple payments and varied depending on the number of days onsite instruction at schools was disrupted because of the pandemic.
The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers 16 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs that affect the lives of millions of people and account for roughly two-thirds of USDA’s annual budget. In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, USDA launched additional temporary programs and implemented numerous policy changes that expanded the scope and coverage of existing programs.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): Background, Trends, and Economic Issues, 2024 Edition
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplementary foods, nutrition education, and referrals to healthcare and other social service agencies to low-income, nutritionally at-risk women, infants, and children up to 5 years of age. Administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, WIC had an annual budget of $6 billion and served more than 6 million people each month in fiscal year 2022.
One-Third of Households With Children Paying for School Meals Reported That Doing So Contributed to Financial Hardship
Finding: Child Nutrition Programs Children typically receive meals through USDA’s National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program for free, at a reduced-price (no more than $0.40 cents for a school lunch and $0.30 cents for a school breakfast), or at full price (generally no more than $3) depending on their household’s income. This changed in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
U.S. Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs Continued To Respond to Economic and Public Health Conditions in Fiscal Year 2022
Feature: Food & Nutrition Assistance Highlights: Economic conditions and other factors affect spending on USDA’s food and nutrition assistance programs by influencing the portion of the population that is eligible to participate, rates of participation, and benefit levels. In some ways, fiscal year (FY) 2022 marked a return to prepandemic operations for the largest food and nutrition assistance programs.
The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Report
by Saied Toossi and Jordan W. Jones The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs that affect the lives of millions of people and account for roughly two-thirds of USDA’s annual budget. In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, USDA launched additional temporary programs and implemented numerous policy changes that expanded the scope and coverage of existing programs.
Cost of School Meals and Households’ Difficulty Paying for Expenses: Evidence From the Household Pulse Survey
by Saied Toossi School meals are typically served to children for free, at a reduced price, or at full price depending on their household income and size. In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the U. S. Department of Agriculture issued a waiver allowing schools to provide meals for free to all students, regardless of household income, in the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years.
Pandemic-Related Program Changes Continued to Shape the U.S. Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape in Fiscal Year 2021
Feature: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by Saied Toossi, Jordan W. Jones, and Leslie Hodges Highlights: The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes to existing USDA food and nutrition assistance programs and the creation of two temporary food assistance programs.
State Universal Free School Meal Policies Reduced Food Insufficiency Among Children in the 2022-2023 School Year
Finding: Child Nutrition Programs The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program provide nutritious meals to tens of millions of children each school day. Typically, children receive federally subsidized meals through these programs for free if their household’s income is no more than 130 percent of the Federal poverty line and at a reduced-price if their household’s income is greater than 130 percent and up to 185 percent of the Federal poverty line.
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