U.S. General Accounting Office. 2004. Nutrition education: USDA provides services through multiple programs, but stronger linkages among efforts are needed. Washington, DC: U.S. General Accounting Office, 51 pp. Annotation: This report addresses the following questions: (1) What key actions can officials take to increase the likelihood of success in nutrition education? (2) Do U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), state, and local officials incorporate these actions into their nutrition education efforts during program design? (3) Do these officials incorporate these actions during service delivery? And (4) Do these officials incorporate these actions during program evaluation? The report is divided into the following sections: (1) results in brief, (2) background, (3) several actions are key to performance-based management and successful nutrition education, (4) although USDA generally incorporates the key program design actions likely to contribute to success, establishing linkages among programs is difficult, (5) programs incorporated the service delivery actions in different ways and to varying extents but faced similar challenges to incorporating them, (6) programs generally did not incorporate key nutrition education evaluation actions, leaving officials with limited information about program results, (7) conclusions, (8) recommendations for executive action, and (9) agency comments. Three appendices include the scope and methodology of the study, nutrition education goals for key USDA programs, and General Accounting Office contacts and staff acknowledgments. Statistical information and other information is presented in figures and tables throughout the report. Contact: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20548, Telephone: (202) 512-3000 Secondary Telephone: E-mail: [email protected] Web Site: http://www.gao.gov Available from the website. Keywords: Department of Agriculture, Local government, Nutrition education, Program development, Program evaluation, Service delivery systems, State government |