BACKGROUND One in six US households with children experiences food insecurity, with higher rates in the summer. Approximately 3 million children receive free meals each summer weekday through the US Department of Agriculture's Summer Nutrition Programs. However, participation in these programs has been declining in recent years and is lower than participation in programs that serve free or reduced-price meals during the school year. OBJECTIVE To identify school and site characteristics associated with greater reach by school-based free summer meals program sites. DESIGN This observational study combined program data, public school data, and Google Maps data to determine factors associated with site reach. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING LunchStop Summer Meals Program sites (N=100) and schools at which they were based during summer 2018 in Chicago, IL. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Reach of sites was measured by the mean daily meals served at each site throughout summer 2018. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED Associations between site reach and each independent variable were evaluated using Mann-Whitney tests and simple linear regressions. Variables significantly associated with site reach in bivariate analyses (P<0.05) were included in a multivariate linear regression. RESULTS In bivariate analyses, sites with greater reach were significantly more likely to be based at schools with higher attendance percentages, higher percentages of Hispanic/Latino students, larger student populations, and locations in a network of southwest Chicago schools. Those with greater reach were also significantly more likely to have continuity in program staff and more years of site operation (all P values ≤0.01). The last four factors remained significant in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS School-based summer meals programs may be able to reach more vulnerable children by taking into account continuity among sites and staff. Further research is needed to clarify whether the relationships between these variables and increased reach is causal.

中文翻译：

---

解决粮食不安全问题：对与学校夏季膳食计划的影响相关的因素进行评估

背景 六分之一的美国有孩子的家庭经历粮食不安全，夏季发生率更高。大约 300 万儿童在每个夏季工作日通过美国农业部的夏季营养计划获得免费餐点。然而，近年来参与这些计划的人数一直在下降，并且低于在学年期间提供免费或减价餐点的计划的参与率。目标 通过校本免费夏季膳食计划站点确定与更大范围相关的学校和站点特征。设计这项观察性研究结合了计划数据、公立学校数据和谷歌地图数据，以确定与站点覆盖率相关的因素。参与者/设置 LunchStop Summer Meals 计划站点（N=100）和他们在 2018 年夏季在伊利诺伊州芝加哥市驻扎的学校。主要结果指标 站点的覆盖范围通过 2018 年夏季每个站点的平均每日膳食测量。执行的统计分析 站点覆盖范围与每个自变量之间的关联使用 Mann-Whitney 检验和简单线性回归进行评估。在双变量分析中与站点范围显着相关的变量 (P<0.05) 包含在多变量线性回归中。结果在双变量分析中，覆盖范围更大的站点更有可能位于出勤率更高、西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生比例更高、学生人数更多以及位于芝加哥西南部学校网络中的学校。那些覆盖面更广的人也更有可能在项目人员中保持连续性，并有更多年的现场运营（所有 P 值 ≤ 0.01）。最后四个因素在多变量分析中仍然显着。结论 通过考虑站点和工作人员之间的连续性，以学校为基础的夏季膳食计划可能能够覆盖更多弱势儿童。需要进一步的研究来澄清这些变量与增加的覆盖面之间的关系是否是因果关系。