Table 5.
Factors identified by Californian school food authorities that helped them implement the state’s USM policy during SY 2022–2023, stratified by FRPM eligibility and enrollment size.
| Facilitators 1 | FRPM Eligibility 2 | Enrollment Size 3 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (n = 127) |
High (n = 273) |
p-Value | Small (n = 217) |
Medium (n = 116) |
Large (n = 71) |
p-Value | ||||||
| n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | |||
| State funding to support school meals | 118 | 92.9 | 253 | 92.7 | 0.93 | 192 | 88.5 | 113 | 97.4 | 69 | 97.2 | 0.003 a |
| Increased federal reimbursement | 113 | 89.0 | 256 | 93.8 | 0.10 | 192 | 88.5 | 110 | 94.8 | 70 | 98.6 | 0.01 b |
| A supportive district administration | 99 | 78.0 | 223 | 81.7 | 0.38 | 168 | 77.4 | 100 | 86.2 | 58 | 81.7 | 0.15 |
| Increased meal participation | 107 | 84.3 | 210 | 76.9 | 0.09 | 158 | 72.8 | 99 | 85.3 | 62 | 87.3 | 0.01 a,b |
| Federal Supply Chain Assistance funds | 74 | 58.3 | 189 | 69.2 | 0.03 | 111 | 51.2 | 93 | 80.2 | 62 | 87.3 | 0.0001 a,b |
1 Frequencies representing SFAs that identified the facilitators as significant or moderate help; other answer options were: “minimal help” and “not applicable”. 2 Free or reduced-price meal (FRPM) eligibility was defined as SFAs with low FRPM eligibility (40% or fewer FRPM students) vs. high FRPM eligibility (SFAs with more than 40% FRPM students) in the SY 2022–2023. 3 Enrollment size was defined as small (≤2499 students), medium (2500 to 9999 students), and large (≥10,000 students). p-values for size represent the overall effect of enrollment size. The statistical significance for pairwise comparisons is indicated as follows: a difference between medium and small SFAs; b difference between large and small SFAs; no significant differences were observed between medium and large SFAs.