Child Health and Food in the Summer (CHeFS)

Summer meal programs can help children get the nutrition they need and stay healthy in the summer. This study will look at qualities of summer meal sites and associations with child nutrition and health. Our goal is to find out how to make summer meal programs the most helpful for children’s nutritional and health needs in the summer.

To participate in the study you must be:

• A parent or legal guardian of an elementary school-aged child
• And you, your child, or someone else in your household is eligible for food assistance or meal benefits such as free or reduced price school breakfast/lunch, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),  the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants & Children (WIC), or another program

Once in spring and once in summer of 2023 or 2024:

• Parents and children will complete brief surveys about child health and summer meal program use.
• Children will complete phone interviews to report food intake.
• Children will have measurements on their height, weight, and percent body fat taken.

Parents will receive up to $160 total for completing all study activities.

Jiwoo Lee, Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing conducts the study with other faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota. This study is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number 1K23HD107179. The content is solely the responsibility of the project investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Bao Yang, Staff

Winnie Yip,  APRN, PMHNP-BC, Research Assistant

Elizabeth Nicholas, Research Assistant