School Lunch Programs and the American Diet: Exploring a Contested Food Terrain (original) (raw)
Related papers
The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends, and Issues. ERS Report Summary
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is one of the largest food and nutrition assistance programs in the United States, feeding millions of children every day. School meal providers face the task of serving nutritious and appealing school lunches, including free and reduced-price lunches for low-income students, and doing so under budget constraints. This report is intended as a briefing for policymakers and other stakeholders on the history and basic features of the program. It also addresses steps being taken by school food authorities and USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in response to challenges faced by program administrators. One of the main goals of NSLP as identified by Congress is to promote the health and well-being of the nation's children. In recent years, questions have been raised about the program's ability to meet this goal, especially as the main nutrition problem has shifted from under-nutrition to overweight and obesity. Public concern for t...
The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends, and Issues
2008
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation’s second largest food and nutrition assistance program. In 2006, it operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools and provided over 28 million low-cost or free lunches to children on a typical school day at a Federal cost of $8 billion for the year. This report provides background information on the NSLP, including historical trends and participant characteristics. It also addresses steps being taken to meet challenges facing administrators of the program, including tradeoffs between nutritional quality of foods served, costs, and participation, as well as between program access and program integrity.
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation's second largest food and nutrition assistance program. In 2006, it operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools and provided over 28 million low-cost or free lunches to children on a typical school day at a Federal cost of $8 billion for the year. This report provides background information on the NSLP, including historical trends and participant characteristics. It also addresses steps being taken to meet challenges facing administrators of the program, including tradeoffs between nutritional quality of foods served, costs, and participation, as well as between program access and program integrity. (Contains 2 tables and 7 figures.)
USDA school meal programs face new challenges
Choices. The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resources Issues, 2009
In 2008, the USDA's National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) fed almost 31 million children each school day. On a typical school day, lunch participants obtain more than onethird (35%) of their daily caloric intake at school; for children participating in both breakfast and lunch, the contribution of school food to caloric intake rises to almost one-half (47%) (Story, 2009). The programs promote the food security of low-income households with children by providing meals to those children at free or reduced price. In addition, the programs strive to improve the diets and health of all participating children. When school meal programs began (see timeline, Table 1), their focus was on ensuring that all children had something to eat for lunch. Today, overweight and obesity have become the most common nutrition problems among American children. Children are described as "overweight but undernourished" as they consume diets high in saturated fat, added sugars, and sodium, but low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lowfat milk. Public concern has risen concerning the quality of foods available to schoolchildren and whether USDA school meal programs contribute to the growing problem of childhood obesity. In response, there is a desire to update and strengthen nutritional requirements for USDA-funded school meals and regulate the nutritional content of other foods and beverages sold at school-often referred to as "competitive foods." At the same time, the economic downturn has brought renewed emphasis on the role of the programs as a nutrition safety net for children, with advocates proposing changes to make more children eligible for free meals. However, there is an important issue related to this. School meal providers find it challenging to cover program costs and encourage student participation while improving the quality of meals served to children. Here, drawing primarily on a review by Ralston et al. (2008), we briefly discuss the history of the national school meal programs, current evidence of their association with children's diet and health, and proposed changes in the programs to meet the changing nutrition problems facing American children. The School Meal Programs: Yesterday and Today The NSLP was founded in 1946, building on smaller, localized efforts to provide school meals to needy children. Over time, federal involvement in providing meals to children and youth expanded, with the creation of the School Breakfast Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program (see Table 1). In 2008, combined Federal spending for these programs reached $14.4 billion, second in terms of expenditures only to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) (see Figure 1). USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers the child nutrition programs and reimburses participating schools' foodservice departments for the meals served to students. Schools must provide meals for free or at a reduced price to children eligible on the basis of household income and USDA reimburses those meals at a higher level. Children from families with incomes at or below 130% of the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130% and 185% of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-priced meals.
2017
Author(s): Serrano, Christyna | Advisor(s): Gutierrez, Kris D | Abstract: This dissertation’s overarching and guiding research question was: “How are education policies and schools both reproducing structural inequality and promoting educational equity and social justice?” This dissertation explores this broad question through an exemplary case: The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and its implementation in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Three papers, representing two “planes of analysis” (Rogoff, 1995) – the federal policy formulation and local implementation levels – and structured to focus on the interplay between “policy, people, and place” (Honig, 2006), were used to explore this question. Each paper also interrogates 1) how federal policy-makers use education policy (NLSP) to position public schools as sites of intervention for mitigating broader social inequities (food insecurity), and 2) the efficacy of delivery of social provision (nutritious food) at the l...
2020 Policy Memo Competition, 2020
Childhood obesity is a serious health problem in the United States that affects millions of children and adolescents. Obese children are more prone to chronic illnesses, and these risks persist into adulthood. The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) sought to promote better nutrition among children, especially those who may otherwise not have access to healthy meals, by providing lunches that meet defined nutritional standards. Despite this effort, obesity rates continue to rise and there is little evidence favoring the effectiveness of the National School Lunch Act in reducing obesity incidence among children. Recently, policymakers proposed expanding nutrition education efforts to the classroom to address the current limitations of the National School Lunch Act (i.e., H.R.5892 and S.3293). However, education efforts alone are insufficient to foster long-lasting healthy eating patterns among children. Therefore, we propose that Congress amend the N...
Analysis of Interest Group Influence on Federal School Meals Regulations 1992 to 1996
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2004
Regulatory changes proposed by the US Department of Agriculture in 1994 promised to bring progressive changes to school meals. However, lobbying by interest groups resulted in substantial changes to the final rule.This analysis retrospectively examines the federal school meals policymaking process during 1992 to 1996. Key questions address why the policy changed and what the role of interest groups was in affecting the shape, pace, and direction of the policy. The study provides suggestions for using the experiences of 1992 to 1996 to guide future advocacy efforts and for adapting the approach for application to other food and nutrition policies.
Framing Federal School Nutrition Policy: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in the Nation’s News
Journal of Health Communication, 2018
The 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) represented a major and controversial overhaul of national nutrition standards for foods served in the United States' nearly 100,000 public schools. To unpack how debate over this far-reaching policy was presented to the public, we examined 152 national print; network, network affiliate, and cable television; and public radio news stories about the policy, all appearing during the window surrounding its scheduled reauthorization (9/1/14-1/31/16). We found that HHFKA opponents were more likely to argue from a smaller set of frames that comprised a concise, clear narrative they frequently repeated, while proponents drew from a broader range of frames, each used less frequently, to present their position. In addition, key voices expected to be prominent in a debate over child health-children and parents-were relatively deemphasized. Overall, the primary frames on either side of this debate argued past one another, leaving largely unanswered critical charges about the role of government in assuring the public's health. This debate reflects deeper arguments at the root of many public health policy decisions, and as such, is an illustrative case example for those planning how to enter and help shape national debate over public health policy. Background The 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) represented the first major overhaul in more than 30 years of national nutrition standards for foods served and sold to children in the United States' nearly 100,000 K-12 public schools (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2010). The law was an effort to better meet the nutritional requirements of all students, address increasing rates of youth obesity, and increase access to healthy foods for students who might not otherwise have it. It included standards for portion sizes and increased whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and low-fat dairy, while also limiting sugar, fat, and sodium in the foods served at schools (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2017a). Perhaps the law's most visible champion was then-First Lady Michelle Obama, who advocated on its behalf in concert with her Let's Move childhood obesity prevention programming (Obama, n.d.). Originally passed with bipartisan support, HHFKA was the subject of controversy from its earliest days, and was altered through a series of rollbacks and waivers throughout its first five years of implementation (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2017b). Some districts reported greater success than others in adapting to the new standards. For example, some districts required not only investment in new meal preparation practices and recipes but also new storage and cooking equipment to properly accommodate the new foods (Byker, Pinard, Yaroch, & Serrano, 2013
From Policy to Practice: Parent Perceptions of the 2010 Federal School Lunch Mandate
Journal of Child Nutrition Management, 2015
Purpose/Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate parent awareness and perceptions of changes to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) implemented as a result of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHKA) of 2010. Methods An online survey of parents of school age (K-12) children in a Midwestern state was conducted (n = 2,189). The survey collected information on the grade of oldest child and child's participation in school lunch, and measured parental awareness and perceptions. Open-ended responses were coded by three coders. Chi-square tests, t-tests, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to examine possible differences in parents' perceptions according to child's grade, participation in school lunch, and school district size. Results Most parents (84%) were aware of the school lunch changes, and, of those, 75% reported their child had discussed the changes with them. Parents with an oldest child in grades K-8 had significantly more positive perceptions of school meals than did parents with an oldest child in grades 9-12. Parents reported mixed perceptions about school lunch. Some parents indicated their child ate more fruits (15.7%) and vegetables (11.6%) since the meal changes. Applications to Child Nutrition Professionals Parents' awareness and concern about school meals are high. Future governmental and school efforts to promote school lunch should include communication components that provide parents with accurate information and feedback opportunities. At the local level, district professionals can harness family support for school meals in ways tailored to the unique contexts of their school community.