C5. Group 3—SFA Director Recruitment Advance Letter 2014.04.01

C5. GROUP 3—SFA DIRECTOR RECRUITMENT ADVANCE LETTER

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DATE, 2014

[FirstName] [LastName]

School Food Authority Director

[SFA]

[Address 1]

[Address 2]

Dear [Prefix] [LastName]:

Your school food authority (SFA) has been selected to participate in the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study (SNMCS). Mathematica Policy Research and Abt Associates are conducting this study under contract to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Participation in the study by selected states, districts, and schools is required under Section 305 of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA). I am writing to provide some general information about the study and to request your full support. This study combines important elements of the School Nutrition and Dietary Assessment (SNDA) and School Lunch and Breakfast Cost (SLBC) studies that have been conducted in the past. As you know, these studies have provided critical information to policy makers, program managers, and others about the content and costs of school meals across the nation, and about the characteristics of food service operations. SNMCS combines elements from both SNDA and SLBC, which significantly increases the value of the research.

Within the next few weeks, Abt will contact you by telephone to discuss the study in more detail and learn more about your SFA. Data collection efforts will occur through June of 2015. The time leading up to that period will be used to coordinate study activities such as establishing points of contact in each sampled school and scheduling a target week for reporting meal component information (Menu Survey) and on-site data collection. You will receive a separate request to complete an online survey of SFA directors after other data collection activities in your district are complete. The survey includes a variety of topics needed to characterize the school environment; food service operating policies and practices; and other characteristics of SFAs, schools, and students. The enclosed fact sheet provides an overview of the study.

Your SFA was selected as part of a scientific sample, so your responses will represent not only your own SFA, but other SFAs that are similar to yours. For this reason, participation of all selected SFAs is critical to the completeness of the study’s findings. I have enclosed a letter of support for the SNMCS from the School Nutrition Association (SNA). SNA agrees with me that the data collected through the SNMCS will provide critical information for setting policies and planning strategies and tools that can truly support schools in serving meals that contribute to a healthy future for all children – a goal we all share.

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this important study. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at (703) ###-#### or abcd.efghi@fns.usda.gov.

Sincerely,

TBD – USDA Signatory

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Enclosures