This report shares information about how Connecticut school districts continued serving meals to students and their families between March and June of 2020. The primary aims are to (1) document meal distribution practices implemented during the closures; (2) articulate the types of challenges encountered by food service directors; and (3) describe the innovations and best practices developed to overcome the challenges.

Full Citation: Hua SV, Sterner-Stein K, Barg FK, et al. A Qualitative Study of Parents With Children 6 to 12 Years Old: Use of Restaurant Calorie Labels to Inform the Development of a Messaging Campaign. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2020;120(11):1884-1892.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.05.018

Links between obesity and complications of COVID-19 have received increasing attention throughout the pandemic. But a different aspect of body weight – the social stigma that people face because of their weight – may also have harmful implications for people’s health during the pandemic. New research from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the University of Minnesota shows that young adults who experienced weight stigma before the pandemic have higher levels of depressive symptoms, stress, eating as a coping strategy, and are more likely to binge-eat during COVID-19 compared to those who haven’t experienced weight stigma. 

Full citation: Puhl RM, Himmelstein MS, Hateley-Browne JL, Speight J. Weight stigma and diabetes stigma in U.S. adults with type 2 diabetes: Associations with diabetes self-care behaviors and perceptions of health care. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2020;168:108387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2020.108387

Full citation: Puhl RM, Lessard LM, Larson N, Eisenberg ME, Neumark-Stzainer D. Weight Stigma as a Predictor of Distress and Maladaptive Eating Behaviors During COVID-19: Longitudinal Findings From the EAT Study. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2020;54(10):738-746. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaaa077

Full Citation: Quinn DM, Puhl RM, Reinka MA. Trying again (and again): Weight cycling and depressive symptoms in U.S. adults. PLoS One. 2020;15(9):e0239004. Published 2020 Sep 11. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239004

Full Citation: Cohen JFW, Schwartz MB, Leider J, Turner L, Chriqui JF. Meal Quality of Entrées That Can Be Sold as Competitive Foods in Schools and Potential Impact of the Proposed USDA Rollbacks. Nutrients. 2020;12(10):3003. Published 2020 Sep 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12103003

Full Citation: Cooksey Stowers K, Jiang Q, Atoloye A, Lucan S, Gans K. Racial Differences in Perceived Food Swamp and Food Desert Exposure and Disparities in Self-Reported Dietary Habits. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(19):7143. Published 2020 Sep 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197143

The aim of the Supporting Wellness at Pantries (SWAP) system is to rank, label, and organize food pantry items according to whether they should be consumed often (green), sometimes (yellow), or rarely (red), using a stoplight system in accordance with the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This study assessed the nutritional quality of inventory available at six food pantries before and after implementing SWAP. The hypothesis was that the intervention would encourage efforts to procure healthier foods.

Six food pantries participated in the study. At baseline, the inventory was assessed over 4 weeks in the summer of 2016. The percentage of red, yellow, and green foods was calculated by food category. The intervention was implemented from October 2016 to June 2017. The follow-up inventory assessment occurred during 4 weeks in the summer of 2017. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to assess whether the nutritional quality of food pantry inventory (measured by SWAP rank) improved post-intervention, adjusting for time trends and food category fixed effects.

Marlene Schwartz discusses how COVID-19 changed the school foodservice environment with JAND Editor-in-Chief Linda Snetselaar, PhD, RDN, LD, FAND, including challenges, innovations, and lessons learned that could impact school foodservice and policy in the future.