School Food Authority Survey III on Supply Chain Disruption and Student Participation

In Spring of 2024, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) conducted the third survey of supply chain challenges faced by School Food Authorities (SFAs). The survey was sent via email to 18,790 SFAs, including all public, private, and charter SFAs operating the National School Lunch Program during School Year (SY) 2023-24. The questionnaire collected data on supply chain-related challenges, their impacts on school meal operations, and strategies SFAs used to address them. The response rate for the survey was 71 percent.

Processing methods and equipment used

The survey for School Year (SY) 2023-24 was administered solely via the web. The study team cleaned the raw data to ensure the data were as correct, complete, and consistent as possible. This process involved examining the data for logical errors. The study team linked the Survey III data to administrative data from the FNS-742 form and from the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD). Records from the CCD were used to construct a measure of urbanicity, which classifies the area in which schools are located. Survey weights were generated to correct for survey non-response and generate nationally representative estimates.

Study date(s) and duration

Data collection occurred from January 29, 2024 to March 19, 2024. Questions asked about challenges and school meal operation costs prior to and during SY 2023-24.

Study spatial scale (size of replicates and spatial scale of study area)

Respondents to the survey included SFAs from all 50 States as well as American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, DC.

Level of true replication

None

Sampling precision (within-replicate sampling or pseudoreplication)

No sampling was involved in the collection of this data.

Level of subsampling (number and repeat or within-replicate sampling)

No sampling was involved in the collection of this data.

Study design (before–after, control–impacts, time series, before–after-control–impacts)

None – Non-experimental

Description of any data manipulation, modeling, or statistical analysis undertaken

Each entry in the dataset contains SFA-level responses to the questionnaire. This file includes information from only SFAs that clicked “Submit” on the questionnaire.

In addition, the file contains weights created to produce national estimates for the SY 2023-24 Survey on Supply Chain Challenges and Student Participation.

While responses are made available for individual SFAs, these SFAs have been de-identified. Information is not included about the SFA name, address, state, or any information for the individual who completed the questionnaire.

Access to restricted data may be made available upon request. Restricted variables include: State identifier; answers to open-ended questions about experience with universal meals, experience with CEP, reasons for high food costs, reasons for high labor costs, reasons for changes in student participation, reasons for increasing/decreasing local food purchases, and other comments.

Description of any gaps in the data or other limiting factors

This is not a complete survey of all SFAs. While the survey was set to all SFAs, the response rate was 71 percent. Part of the reason for non-response was outdated contact information that FNS was not able to rectify for this survey. Of 18,790 SFAs, 1,262 (6.7% of SFAs contacted) had email addresses to which the study team was unable to deliver messages. Survey weights are included to adjust for this non-response bias and obtain nationally representative estimates.

Outcome measurement methods and equipment used

None