Perspectives on messaging strategies to increase participation in Universal Free School Meal programs: A qualitative study with parents of elementary-aged children.

Background: Eight states currently have Universal Free School Meal programs that offer school meals at no charge to all students regardless of their household income. Marketing campaigns offer a scalable strategy for motivating parents to encourage their children to participate in these programs, but little is known about what topics campaigns should address.

Objective: To explore perceptions of the content and design of messages encouraging school meal participation among parents of elementary-aged children.

Design: Qualitative online semi-structured interviews conducted in February-March 2024. Interviews explored parents' reactions to messages encouraging school meal participation with a variety of topics (e.g., saving time, improving nutrition) and design elements (e.g., cartoons, photographs).

Participants: /setting: Parents of children in grades 1-5 not frequently consuming school meals and living in states with Universal Free School Meal programs (n=18; 14 female; 6 Spanish-speaking).

Analysis: Discussions were transcribed verbatim. Investigators developed codes in vivo and analyzed transcripts using a thematic approach.

Results: Parents perceived messages that focused on how school meals are convenient and save money to be most likely to motivate them to encourage their children to eat school meals. Parents also believed that school meals can foster social and developmental benefits. Parents perceived messages describing the nutritional quality of school meals to be likely to be motivating, but only if they perceived school meals to be nutritious. Some parents reported they did not know school meals were free, despite living in states with Universal Free School Meals. In terms of design, parents preferred succinct messages with bold colors, modern layouts, and references or statistics.

Conclusions: Campaigns seeking to motivate parents to encourage their children to participate in Universal Free School Meal programs may wish to discuss convenience, saving money, and social and developmental benefits, and to communicate that school meals are free for all students. Future studies will be needed to evaluate whether campaigns discussing these topics successfully promote school meal participation.