The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act greatly impacted what the majority of operators offer at lunch, according to new research from Datassential. Other challenging areas include menu rotation and reimbursements.
Operators report that meeting requirements for items offered at lunch to be a bigger challenge in 2013 than in 2012. Lunch program reimbursements nearly doubled in impact between 2012 and 2013, jumping from 27% to 54%.
How operators say the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act has impacted them:
| Impacted 2013 | Impacted 2012 | Greatest Challenges 2013 | Greatest Challenges 2012 | |
| Lunch foods offered | 81% | 74% | 39% | 24% |
| Frequency of items on menu rotation | 63% | 50% | 14% | 10% |
| Lunch program reimbursements | 54% | 27% | 13% | 5% |
| Breakfast foods offered | 42% | 45% | 3% | 3% |
| More items prepared from scratch/partial scratch | 35% | 48% | 10% | 15% |
| Nutritional information available to students and parents | 31% | 39% | 5% | 9% |
| Purchasing locally sourced foods | 24% | 38% | 5% | 8% |
| More items purchased prepared | 21% | 21% | 4% | 2% |
| Program qualification rates | 20% | 15% | 2% | 1% |
| Food handling requirements/food safety requirements | 16% | 16% | 0% | 1% |
| Items available in the vending machines | 15% | 25% | 2% | 3% |
| Student access to vending machines | 9% | 17% | 1% | 1% |
Source: Datassential