Marlene Schwartz, Ph.D.

Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health (Principal Investigator); Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies University of Connecticut

  • Storrs CT

Dr. Schwartz specializes in school wellness and nutrition programs, and food insecurity.

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University of Connecticut

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2 min

Federal support for school food programs is about to expire -- Our expert explains the importance of keeping kids hunger-free

For two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. public schools have been able to provide free meals for all students, including to-go meals in the summer. But on June 30, 2022, the federal waivers that expanded the school lunch program will expire. In a recent Q&A published by The Conversation, Marlene Schwartz, a professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut and the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health, discusses how these changes will affect children and families and how food pantries can help: What are the effects of making school meals free for all students? The findings are pretty clear that when students have universal free meals, participation in school meals programs goes up, so more children eat them. And research shows that the meals that are provided through the school meal program are of higher nutritional quality than the meals that children bring from home or get from other places. Some studies have found that when you provide universal free meals, you have improvements in academic performance, particularly for students who are at higher risk. There is also evidence in some studies that universal free school meals help improve family food insecurity rates. When a family knows that their child can get breakfast and lunch every day at school, it really allows them to save their food budget to purchase other foods for the house. And that helps them be more food-secure. What is the role of food banks and pantries in shaping the diet and health of vulnerable children and families? Within the charitable food system, there’s been a real shift in thinking that has been a change from giving away as many pounds of food as possible to really looking at the nutritional quality of those pounds. That’s thanks in part to Feeding America, which is a national network of food banks, and Partnership for a Healthier America, which is part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. Both of them are working with food banks around the country to really help them track the nutritional quality of their food and set goals for themselves in terms of maximizing the most nutritious foods they are able to distribute. Dr. Schwartz is an expert on school wellness and nutrition programs and food insecurity. She's available to speak with media simply click on her icon now to arrange a time today.

Marlene Schwartz, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Schwartz is Director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health and Professor of Human Development and Family Studies. Dr. Schwartz’s research and community service address how home environments, school landscapes, neighborhoods, and the media shape the eating attitudes and behaviors of children.

Dr. Schwartz earned her PhD in Psychology from Yale University in 1996. Prior to joining the Rudd Center, she served as Co-Director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders from 1996 to 2006. She has collaborated with the Connecticut State Department of Education to evaluate nutrition and physical activity policies in schools and preschools throughout the state. She co-chaired the Connecticut Obesity Task Force and has provided expert testimony on obesity-related state policies. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Food Bank.

Dr. Schwartz has received research grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health to study school wellness policies, the preschool nutrition environment, the effect of food marketing on children, the relationship between food insecurity and nutrition, and how federal food programs can improve the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods. In 2014, Dr. Schwartz received the Sarah Samuels Award from the Food and Nutrition Section of the American Public Health Association. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has profiled Dr. Schwartz’s life and career.

Areas of Expertise

Food Pantries
School Food
SNAP
School Food Options
Nutrition
Food Insecurity
Nutrition in Food Programs
WIC
food banks

Education

Yale University

Ph.D.

Psychology

1996

Media Appearances

Cuts to school lunch and food bank funding mean less fresh produce for children and families

The Conversation  online

2025-06-05

The U.S. government recently cut more than US$1 billion in funding to two long-running programs that helped schools and food banks feed children and families in need. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the reductions are a “return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives.” But advocacy groups say the cuts will hurt millions of Americans.

The reductions came just days before the release of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again report, an analysis of the factors causing chronic disease in children. One of those factors, the report says, is poor diet.

Dr. Marlene Schwartz, a professor of human development and family sciences and director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health at the University of Connecticut, discusses why cutting the Local Food for Schools and the Local Food Purchase Assistance programs means less fresh food will be available to children and families – and could hurt local farmers and ranchers too.

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Food banks, schools in Arkansas face decreased funding

Little Rock Public Radio  radio

2025-05-28

Food banks and schools in Arkansas are facing decreased funding after the USDA cancelled nearly $1 billion in programs. The Local Food in Schools program helped school cafeterias create meals using fresh produce from local farmers. Marlene Schwartz is the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health at the University of Connecticut. She says the cuts will impact a wide swath of partnerships.

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Is there really such a thing as a healthy soda?

The Washington Post  online

2024-07-03

“In my field, there’s a phrase: ‘health halo,’ which is where you try to make something that’s not all that healthy look healthy. And I would say that’s the case with these products,” said Marlene Schwartz, director of the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health. “There’s a lot that companies can say that is not regulated. This is something that advocates have been complaining about for a long time,” she added.

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Articles

Schools will stop serving free lunch to all students – a pandemic solution left out of a new federal spending package

The Conversation

2022-03-14

Public schools have been serving all students free meals since the COVID-19 pandemic first disrupted K-12 education. In March 2022, Congress rejected calls to keep up the federal funding required to sustain that practice and left that money out of a US$1.5 trillion spending package that President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11, 2022. We asked food policy expert Marlene Schwartz to explain why free meals make a difference and what will happen next.

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Giving food pantry clients choices – and gently nudging them toward nutritious foods – can lead to healthier diets

The Conversation

Caitlin Caspi and Marlene B. Schwartz

2021-05-25

Food banks and pantries across the U.S. were forced in the pandemic to dispense with something that is central to most people’s grocery experience: choice.

Faced with social-distancing rules and a large uptick in need – by one estimate these nonprofits served 55% more people – for the most part, clients were offered prepacked bags or boxes of food rather than allowed to pick from shelves themselves, as was increasingly common before the pandemic.

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How Connecticut’s schools have managed to maintain lunch distribution for kids who need it most during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Conversation

2021-02-02

Connecticut schools ensured that low-income students were still getting enough to eat after the pandemic first shuttered buildings in March because of a swift shift in how staff prepared and distributed cafeteria food, according an article we recently published in a peer-reviewed journal.

When the state’s school buildings closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March 2020, the estimated share of children facing economic hardship who received a school lunch quickly fell to 42% from 62%. But by April and May, Connecticut schools were serving about the same number of school lunches as they had served to low-income children during the same months the previous school year.

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