Costs, Reach, and Benefits of COVID-19 Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer and Grab-and-Go School Meals for Ensuring Youths' Access to Food During School Closures.

Autor:	Kenney EL; Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts., Walkinshaw LP; Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, Seattle., Shen Y; Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts., Fleischhacker SE; Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC., Jones-Smith J; Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, Seattle.; Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle., Bleich SN; Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts., Krieger JW; Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, Seattle.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	JAMA network open [JAMA Netw Open] 2022 Aug 01; Vol. 5 (8), pp. e2229514. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Aug 01.
DOI:	10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.29514
Abstrakt:	Importance: School meals are associated with improved nutrition and health for millions of US children, but school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted children's access to school meals. Two policy approaches, the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program, which provided the cash value of missed meals directly to families on debit-like cards to use for making food purchases, and the grab-and-go meals program, which offered prepared meals from school kitchens at community distribution points, were activated to replace missed meals for children from low-income families; however, the extent to which these programs reached those who needed them and the programs' costs were unknown. Objective: To assess the proportion of eligible youths who were reached by P-EBT and grab-and-go meals, the amount of meals or benefits received, and the cost to implement each program. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2020. The study population was all US youths younger than 19 years, including US youths aged 6 to 18 years who were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals (primary analysis sample). Exposures: Receipt of P-EBT or grab-and-go school meals. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcomes were the percentage of youths reached by P-EBT and grab-and-go school meals, mean benefit received per recipient, and mean cost, including implementation costs and time costs to families per meal distributed. Results: Among 30 million youths eligible for free or reduced-price meals, grab-and-go meals reached an estimated 8.0 million (27%) and P-EBT reached 26.9 million (89%). The grab-and-go school meals program distributed 429 million meals per month in spring 2020, and the P-EBT program distributed $3.2 billion in monthly cash benefits, equivalent to 1.1 billion meals. Among those receiving benefits, the mean monthly benefit was larger for grab-and-go school meals ($148; range across states, $44-$176) compared with P-EBT ($110; range across states, $55-$114). Costs per meal delivered were lower for P-EBT ($6.46; range across states, $6.41-$6.79) compared with grab-and-go school meals ($8.07; range across states, $2.97-$15.27). The P-EBT program had lower public sector implementation costs but higher uncompensated time costs to families (eg, preparation time for meals) compared with grab-and-go school meals. Conclusions and Relevance: In this economic evaluation, both the P-EBT and grab-and-go school meal programs supported youths' access to food in complementary ways when US schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic from March to June 2020.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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