California was the first state in the nation to pass legislation to reduce Ultraprocessed Foods (UPFs) in schools through Assembly Bill 1264. To support California’s efforts, the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) was funded by the State Legislature to conduct a multi-year evaluation of UPFs in school meals. The NPI has randomly selected your School Food Authority (SFA) to participate in this statewide evaluation.
Findings from this evaluation will help inform how UPFs are defined, tracked, and regulated in school foods and beverages across the state. Your SFA's participation is a meaningful part of making that possible. As a participant, you will receive a marketing toolkit and five individualized site reports summarizing your SFA's data. Data collected as a part of this evaluation will be aggregated; no data or information from your SFA will be shared publicly.
Participation involvement will include
- Attending a short informational webinar to learn more about the evaluation and ask questions. (This activity is optional but highly encouraged.)
- For one randomly selected school site: providing access to, or submitting food service records (such as menus, production sheets, and competitive foods records) up to two times annually (once in the fall and once in the spring) over the six-year evaluation period.
- Completing a brief online survey about your SFA annually over the evaluation period.
A Frequently Asked Question fact sheet with more detail on the evaluation and what is being asked of participants is available at the UC Davis UPFs in California Schools Evaluation FAQ
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In the coming days, you will receive an email with more information from the Nutrition Policy Institute research team, from the following email address: University of California School Meals Study [schoolmealsstudy@ucanr.edu]. If you have questions in the meantime, you can reach out to the research team at this email address. For more information about NPI, visit the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute web page
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Thank you for considering this opportunity to help shape the future of school nutrition policy in California. We look forward to having your SFA as part of this important work.