tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/national-school-lunch-program-13396/articlesNational School Lunch Program – The Conversation2024-03-18T12:24:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232702024-03-18T12:24:52Z2024-03-18T12:24:52ZFree school meals for all may reduce childhood obesity, while easing financial and logistical burdens for families and schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580529/original/file-20240307-16-nylyj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School meal waivers that started with the COVID-19 pandemic stopped with the end of the public health emergency.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/plymouth-ma-a-student-at-plymouth-county-intermediate-news-photo/1242013592">Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>School meals are critical to child health. Research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9090924">school meals can be more nutritious</a> than meals from other sources, such as meals brought from home. </p>
<p>A recent study that one of us conducted found the quality of school meals has steadily improved, especially since the 2010 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.9517">Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act</a> strengthened nutrition standards for school meals. In fact, by 2017, another study found that school meals provided the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.5262">best diet quality</a> of any major U.S. food source.</p>
<p>Many American families became familiar with universal free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ease the financial and logistical burdens of the pandemic on families and schools, the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/coronavirus">U.S. Department of Agriculture issued waivers</a> that allowed schools nationwide to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. However, these <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/offsite-monitoring-after-phe#">waivers expired</a> by the 2022-23 school year. </p>
<p>Since that time, there has been a substantial increase in schools participating in the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/community-eligibility-provision">Community Eligibility Provision</a>, a federal policy that allows schools in high poverty areas to provide free breakfast and lunch to all attending students. The policy became available as an option for low-income schools nationwide in 2014 and was part of the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/Child_Nutrition_Fact_Sheet_12_10_10.pdf">Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act</a>. By the 2022-23 school year, <a href="https://frac.org/cep-report-2023">over 40,000 schools</a> had adopted the Community Eligibility Provision, an increase of more than 20% over the prior year.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Many families felt stressed when a federal program providing free school meals during the pandemic came to an end.</span></figcaption>
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<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ihU7JuoAAAAJ&hl=en">public health</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VkqyJPcAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers who</a> study the health effects of nutrition-related policies, particularly those that alleviate poverty. Our newly published research found that the Community Eligibility Provision was associated with a net <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023-063749">reduction in the prevalence of childhood obesity</a>.</p>
<h2>Improving the health of American children</h2>
<p>President Harry Truman <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/nslp-fact-sheet">established the National School Lunch Program</a> in 1946, with the stated goal of protecting the health and well-being of American children. The program established permanent federal funding for school lunches, and participating schools were required to provide free or reduced-price lunches to children from qualifying households. Eligibility is <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/fr-020923">determined by income</a> based on federal poverty levels, both of which are <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/17/2024-00796/annual-update-of-the-hhs-poverty-guidelines#">revised annually</a>.</p>
<p>In 1966, the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cna-amended-pl-111-296">Child Nutrition Act</a> piloted the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/sbp/program-history">School Breakfast Program</a>, which provides free, reduced-price and full-price breakfasts to students. This program was later made permanent through an amendment in 1975.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/community-eligibility-provision">Community Eligibility Provision</a> was piloted in several states beginning in 2011 and became an option for eligible schools nationwide beginning in 2014. It operates through the national school lunch and school breakfast programs and expands on these programs.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Gloved hand placing cheese slices on bun slices" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580532/original/file-20240307-22-r2dnw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Various federal and state programs have sought to make food more accessible to children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cafeteria-worker-puts-together-sandwiches-for-free-meals-as-news-photo/1213018954">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The policy allows all students in a school to receive free breakfast and lunch, rather than determine eligibility by individual households. Entire schools or school districts are eligible for free lunches if at least 40% of their students are directly certified to receive free meals, meaning their household participated in a means-based safety net program, such as the <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/NSLPDirectCertification2016.pdf">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>, or the child is identified as runaway, homeless, in foster care or enrolled in Head Start. Some states also <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/direct-certification-medicaid-demonstration-project">use Medicaid for direct certification</a>.</p>
<p>The Community Eligibility Provision increases school meal participation by <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300134">reducing the stigma</a> associated with receiving free meals, eliminating the need to complete and process applications and extending access to students in households with incomes above the eligibility threshold for free meals. As of 2023, the eligibility threshold for free meals is 130% of the federal poverty level, which amounts to US$39,000 for a family of four.</p>
<h2>Universal free meals and obesity</h2>
<p>We analyzed whether providing universal free meals at school through the Community Eligibility Provision was associated with lower childhood obesity before the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>To do this, we measured <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023-063749">changes in obesity prevalence</a> from 2013 to 2019 among 3,531 low-income California schools. We used over 3.5 million body mass index measurements of students in fifth, seventh and ninth grade that were taken annually and aggregated at the school level. To ensure rigorous results, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2020.12.001">accounted for differences</a> between schools that adopted the policy and eligible schools that did not. We also followed the same schools over time, comparing obesity prevalence before and after the policy.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Child scooping food from salad bar onto a tray; other children lean against the wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580530/original/file-20240307-24-swy6q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Free school meals may help reduce health disparities among marginalized and low-income children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/westbrook-middle-school-fifth-grade-student-salem-bukasa-news-photo/469592304">Whitney Hayward/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>We found that schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023-063749">2.4% relative reduction</a> in obesity prevalence compared with eligible schools that did not participate in the provision. Although our findings are modest, even small improvements in obesity levels are notable because effective strategies to reduce obesity at a population level <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-019-0176-8">remain elusive</a>. Additionally, because obesity <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc:106273">disproportionately affects</a> racially and ethnically marginalized and low-income children, this policy could contribute to reducing health disparities.</p>
<p>The Community Eligibility Provision likely reduces obesity prevalence by substituting up to half of a child’s weekly diet with healthier options and simultaneously <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102646">freeing up more disposable income</a> for low-to-middle-income families. Families receiving free breakfast and lunch save approximately $4.70 per day per child, or $850 per year. For low-income families, particularly those with multiple school-age children, this could result in meaningful savings that families can use for other health-promoting goods or services.</p>
<h2>Expanding access to school meals</h2>
<p>Childhood obesity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-053708">has been</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.14590">increasing over</a> the past several decades. Obesity often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12334">continues into adulthood</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/obesity-in-children-is-rising-dramatically-and-it-comes-with-major-and-sometimes-lifelong-health-consequences-202595">and is linked</a> to a range of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2016.303326">chronic health conditions and premature death</a>. </p>
<p>Growing research is showing the benefits of universal free school meals for the health and well-being of children. Along with our study of California schools, other researchers have found an association between universal free school meals and reduced obesity in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/723824">Chile</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101072">South Korea</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubecp.2022.100016">England</a>, as well as among <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22175">New York City schools</a> and school districts in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00380">New York state</a>.</p>
<p>Studies have also linked the Community Eligibility Provision to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.57.3.0518-9509R3">improvements in academic performance</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312231222266">reductions in suspensions</a>.</p>
<p>While our research observed a reduction in the prevalence of obesity among schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision relative to schools that did not, obesity increased over time in both groups, with a greater increase among nonparticipating schools.</p>
<p>Universal free meals policies may slow the rise in childhood obesity rates, but they alone will not be sufficient to reverse these trends. Alongside universal free meals, identifying <a href="https://theconversation.com/fixing-the-global-childhood-obesity-epidemic-begins-with-making-healthy-choices-the-easier-choices-and-that-requires-new-laws-and-policies-207975">other population-level strategies</a> to reduce obesity among children is necessary to address this public health issue.</p>
<p>As of 2023, <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/5-states-addressing-child-hunger-and-food-insecurity-with-free-school-meals-for-all/">several states have implemented their own</a> universal free school meals policies. States such as California, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico have pledged to cover the difference between school meal expenditures and federal reimbursements. As more states adopt their own universal free meals policies, understanding their effects on child health and well-being, as well as barriers and supports to successfully implementing these programs, will be critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Jones-Smith receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Localio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since nutrition standards were strengthened in 2010, eating at school provides many students with healthier food than is available cheaply elsewhere. Plus, reducing stigma increases the number of kids getting fed.Anna Localio, Ph.D. Candidate in Health Services, University of WashingtonJessica Jones-Smith, Associate Professor of Health Systems and Population Health, Epidemiology, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843652022-06-07T12:32:24Z2022-06-07T12:32:24ZChanges are coming to school meals nationwide – an expert in food policy explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466869/original/file-20220602-183-w294c0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C33%2C4477%2C2978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eating well makes it easier to concentrate on learning.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tyden-brownlee-picks-up-a-free-school-lunch-at-olympic-news-photo/1207638083">Karen Ducey/Stringer via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For the 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, <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-will-stop-serving-free-lunch-to-all-students-a-pandemic-solution-left-out-of-a-new-federal-spending-package-179058">the federal waivers that expanded the school lunch program will expire</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>In May 2022, SciLine interviewed <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fPDErC8AAAAJ&hl=en">Marlene Schwartz</a>, a professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut and the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health, about how these changes will affect children and families and how food pantries can help.</em></p>
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<p><em>The Conversation has collaborated with SciLine to bring you highlights from the discussion, which have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
<h2>What is the role of school food in children’s overall diet and health?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: School food plays an important role, particularly since <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act">the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was passed in 2010</a>, improved the National School Lunch Program. About <a href="https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/primer-school_breakfast_program_national_lunch_program/">30 million children a day</a> participate in the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp">National School Lunch Program</a>. </p>
<p>The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act required the USDA to update not just the rules about what was served for the reimbursable lunch, but also the rules for things like snacks and beverages that are sold in vending machines or other places in the school.</p>
<p>Research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2019.10.022">the meals served now are better</a>, that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.9517">the meals children are eating are better</a>, and, in fact, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00133">some data suggests</a> that the trajectory of childhood obesity that has been such a concern has been attenuated because of the success of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.</p>
<h2>During the pandemic, the federal government provided waivers to school food programs so they can change their services. What changes have the waivers permitted?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz:</strong> The largest change was allowing for all of the children to receive meals at no cost. That dramatically increased the number of children who had access to school meals.</p>
<p>Another large change that came from the waivers was for the summer meal program. Typically, that program is much smaller, and meals are served at particular sites in a community and children need to be brought there by a parent, and they need to eat the meal on-site. </p>
<p>During COVID-19, the USDA allowed that program to provide meals to-go. Breakfasts, lunches were packaged up and were distributed to the parents of the children, and this increased participation because it allowed parents to access these foods in a way that worked with their own schedules, particularly if they are working parents.</p>
<h2>Assuming the waivers will expire as scheduled on June 30, how are schools going to cope?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: It’s hard to know how schools are going to cope, but dropping the waivers will make their jobs much harder.</p>
<p>We are adding the administrative burden of having to go back to collecting information from families to see who qualifies for the meals, and then, in the actual serving of the meals, having to know who’s eligible for reduced or free meals and collecting money from those who pay. Those are things that, over the last couple of years, food service directors have not had to manage, giving them more time to really focus instead on the meals.</p>
<p>It’s also important to recognize that we are still facing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1077371645/schools-scramble-to-feed-kids-as-supply-chain-issues-persist">supply chain issues</a>. Food service directors often order the food months in advance. When that food doesn’t show up, they really need to scramble to find substitutes. Those problems have increased the burden on them to run the program.</p>
<h2>What are the effects of making school meals free for all students?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: The findings are pretty clear that when students have universal free meals, <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030911">participation in school meals programs goes up</a>, 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 <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.5262">meals that children bring from home or get from other places</a>.</p>
<p>Some studies have found that when you provide universal free meals, you have <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030911">improvements in academic performance,</a> particularly for students who are at higher risk.</p>
<p>There is also evidence in <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030911">some studies</a> 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.</p>
<h2>What is the role of food banks and pantries in shaping the diet and health of vulnerable children and families?</h2>
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<span class="caption">There are over 200 food banks across the country that distribute food to thousands of food pantries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/residents-line-up-in-their-cars-at-a-food-distribution-site-news-photo/1229725297">Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: 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 <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/">Feeding America</a>, which is a national network of food banks, and <a href="https://www.ahealthieramerica.org/">Partnership for a Healthier America</a>, 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.</p>
<h2>What do you wish people knew about the current state of school foods?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: One thing that I would really like people to acknowledge is the improvements that have occurred in the school meal program after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. One of the challenges that I’ve noticed in my research is that sometimes the menu that you get from your school says things like chicken nuggets, pizza, tacos, hamburger, and a parent might think that doesn’t sound healthy. </p>
<p>What they don’t know is that those chicken nuggets are baked, not fried, and probably are whole grain breadcrumbs. The pizza probably has a whole grain crust, lower-fat cheese and vegetables on it. There’s this tension between wanting to create school menus that will be appealing to children and also communicate the nutrition information to parents. And that’s not the easiest thing to do.</p>
<p><em>SciLine is a free service based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlene B. Schwartz has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Agriculture, Connecticut State Department of Education, Partnership for a Healthier America, Feeding America, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Horizon Foundation. </span></em></p>An expert on food policy explains how the end of COVID-19 waivers will impact children’s access to food, as well as the importance of food banks and pantries.Marlene B. Schwartz, Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health and Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790582022-03-14T12:22:23Z2022-03-14T12:22:23ZSchools will stop serving free lunch to all students – a pandemic solution left out of a new federal spending package<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451702/original/file-20220312-25-1vg2wv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=105%2C67%2C4903%2C3409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">About 30 million students eat school lunches daily.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-american-school-girl-holding-lunch-on-a-royalty-free-image/136801944?adppopup=true">JGI/Jamie Grill/Tetra Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>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 <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/free-school-meals-not-included-in-1-5-trillion-budget/">US$1.5 trillion spending package</a> that <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-aid-biden-signs-omnibus-bill/">President Joe Biden signed</a> into law on March 11, 2022. We asked food policy expert <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fPDErC8AAAAJ&hl=en">Marlene Schwartz</a> to explain why free meals make a difference and what will happen next.</em></p>
<h2>How did the COVID-19 pandemic initially affect the school lunch program?</h2>
<p>In March 2020, nearly all U.S. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/818300504/schools-race-to-feed-students-amid-coronavirus-closures">K-12 school buildings closed</a> due to the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the federal government’s <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp">National School Lunch Program</a>, quickly <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/fns-disaster-assistance/fns-responds-covid-19/child-nutrition-covid-19-waivers">granted waivers</a> to increase program flexibility and accommodate the challenges of the pandemic.</p>
<p>These waivers, which have been renewed several times, were critically important for school food service programs as the programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.020">abruptly shifted</a>
away from serving meals in cafeterias and designed new distribution models to continue to feed students. Many school meal staff across the country created <a href="https://thecounter.org/covid-19-school-lunch-minneapolis-houston-kansas-city-san-francisco/">grab-and-go meals</a> that families could pick up, which was particularly important in the spring of 2020 and the following school year. Another major change, which has continued during the 2021-2022 school year, is that school systems are able to serve meals to all students at no cost.</p>
<p>Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">30 million lunches were served every school day</a> to K-12 students through the National School Lunch Program. Schools provided roughly three-quarters of those meals at reduced rates or no cost at all – with the federal government reimbursing a portion of the cost of those meals. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children near a school bus, wearing masks, carry bags of food." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451653/original/file-20220311-22-iqtor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Children like these in Santa Fe, N.M., could pick up bagged meals at bus stops when their schools had closed their doors amid virus outbreaks in 2020 and 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakNewMexico/16263619130e462d81806328e5badd28/photo?Query=school%20meals&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1074&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio</a></span>
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<h2>How much money is involved?</h2>
<p>The program cost <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/child-nutrition-programs/national-school-lunch-program">$14 billion in 2019</a>, before the pandemic disrupted it.</p>
<p>The price of a school lunch for families without free or reduced-cost meals varies. In 2017, full-price lunches tended to run between <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats">$2.50 and $2.75</a> apiece. </p>
<h2>Are all public school students still getting free meals?</h2>
<p>Yes. However, that will no doubt change once the latest waiver expires on <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/covid-19-child-nutrition-response-85">June 30, 2022</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://frac.org/news/fracdissapointedomnibusmarch2022">Advocates urged Congress</a> to keep funding school nutrition programs at higher levels. But Congress <a href="https://frac.org/news/fracdissapointedomnibusmarch2022">did not include that money</a> in the <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/budget/2022/03/congress-seeks-updates-on-state-of-the-federal-workforce-in-1-5t-omnibus-spending-deal/">$1.5 trillion spending bill</a> House and Senate lawmakers passed in March 2022.</p>
<p>This means that next fall, most schools will have to resume the old three-tiered system where some families don’t pay at all, some receive discounted lunches, and others must pay full price.</p>
<p>Two states will buck that trend. <a href="https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/univmealsqandapart2.asp">California</a> and <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2021/07/11/maine-among-first-states-to-make-school-meals-free-for-all-students/">Maine</a> will continue providing universal school meals after the federal waiver ends due to measures their state legislators passed and governors signed into law during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>At the federal level, more than a dozen senators and roughly 50 members of the House of Representatives backed proposed <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s1530">legislation in 2021 that would permanently make school lunch free</a> for all students, regardless of their income. There is significant <a href="https://frac.org/news/introuniversalschoolmealsmay2021">support</a> for this idea among advocates, but the future of this type of federal legislation remains to be seen. </p>
<h2>What are the advantages of making school meals free to everyone?</h2>
<p>In my view, the biggest advantage to universal school meals is that more students actually eat nutritious school meals. Following the regulations that emerged from the 2010 <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act">Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act</a>, the nutritional quality of school meals improved significantly, and a recent study found that schools typically provide the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.5262">healthiest foods that children eat</a> all day.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030911">The research shows</a> that making school meals free for everyone improves attendance and <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-school-meals-for-all-children-can-improve-kids-health-161957">boosts diet quality</a>. It also decreases the risk of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-food-insecurity-152746">food insecurity</a> and the <a href="https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/stories/posts/fighting-the-stigma-of-free-lunch-why-universal-free-school-lunch-is-good-for-students-schools-and-families/">stigma associated</a> with receiving a free meal. When no one has to pay, the growing problem of <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-serve-kids-food-in-school-not-shame-81787">school meal debt</a> is also eliminated.</p>
<p>There are important logistical benefits to universal school meals. Families don’t have to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/applying-free-and-reduced-price-school-meals">fill out any paperwork</a> to establish their eligibility for free or reduced-price meals. And cafeteria staff can focus on serving the meals if they don’t need to <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">track payments</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s wrong with charging some students for lunch again?</h2>
<p>You have to look at the costs and benefits of the big picture. Universal school meals provide significant benefits to the school community as a whole – most notably, reductions in food insecurity and improvements in student diet quality. I believe these benefits are far greater than the marginal cost of providing free meals to students who would otherwise pay. </p>
<p>The fall of 2022 is also much too early to revert back to the three-tiered system because school food programs continue to face significant challenges. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1077371645/schools-scramble-to-feed-kids-as-supply-chain-issues-persist">Supply chain disruptions</a> have made it harder to buy some kinds of food, including <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/FNS-Survey-Supply-Chain-Disruptions.pdf">chicken and whole grain products</a>. In addition, many schools are having trouble <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/results-fns-administered-school-food-authority-survey-supply-chain-disruption">hiring the staff they need</a> to prepare and serve the meals, and <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/">inflation is increasing food costs</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="vRNnG" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vRNnG/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>What do you see happening in the future?</h2>
<p>Ideally, the federal government will reconsider this issue and support universal school meals.</p>
<p>If that does not happen, advocates, policymakers and researchers will be watching what happens in California and Maine. We will be able to compare what happens in these states versus those that do not continue to provide all students with free meals. My hope is that this information will inform future decisions about implementing universal school meals for all students nationally.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlene B. Schwartz receives funding from the USDA and the Connecticut State Department of Education. </span></em></p>A food policy expert explains how school lunches changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and what’s wrong with going back to the normal system now.Marlene B. Schwartz, Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health and Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1543082021-02-02T13:10:54Z2021-02-02T13:10:54ZHow Connecticut’s schools have managed to maintain lunch distribution for kids who need it most during the COVID-19 pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381810/original/file-20210201-17-oh1qvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=79%2C55%2C4006%2C2125&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When they moved instruction online, many schools began distributing grab-and-go lunches.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakFlorida/4653869f720346a18b74c15687805ec2/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=61&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Lynne Sladky</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>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 <a href="https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.020">peer-reviewed journal</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.020">same number of school lunches</a> as they had served to low-income children during the same months the previous school year.</p>
<p>The initial decline put Connecticut’s nearly <a href="http://ctschoolfinance.org/students/low-income">230,000 students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals</a> at a greater risk of not getting enough to eat. The state avoided this outcome because school food service staff members changed their preparation, packaging and distribution methods to feed students who were no longer eating in cafeterias. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I came to this conclusion after analyzing statewide meal-distribution data from 120 districts and conducting extensive interviews with food service directors from eight school systems around Connecticut. The food service directors were selected to represent urban, rural and suburban districts from different regions of the state. </p>
<p>Most Connecticut school districts established “<a href="https://edsource.org/2020/usda-allows-school-districts-to-resume-serving-free-grab-and-go-meals-through-2020/639431">grab-and-go</a>” distribution at their shuttered school buildings once they switched to virtual learning. We also heard about rural districts employing bus drivers to deliver meals to students’ homes. Some districts made an effort to establish food-distribution sites at community centers, libraries, fire departments and child care centers near where low-income students live.</p>
<p>Trial and error was the rule. Most districts began by adjusting staffing and schedules, as well as the number of distribution sites and their locations. They needed to experiment at first with packaging materials to ensure meals were portable, safe and ready to reheat. We heard from many sources that communication with families was crucial, since it was important to let everyone know when and where meals would be available and what was on the menu. Schools used every channel available – email, robocalls, social media, text messages and websites. One local food service director had staff personally call families. Others had principals record messages or local clergy do outreach. Everything needed to be translated into Spanish to reach all families. And undocumented parents needed to be reassured that no one was checking for immigration status at the distribution sites. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>The food service directors said that these efforts all helped to increase participation.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>One consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biden-administration-can-eliminate-food-insecurity-in-the-united-states-heres-how-153029">increase in food insecurity</a>, the technical term for the inability to get enough food for financial or logistical reasons. According to a recent survey, <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-recessions-effects-on-food-housing-and">10% to 15% of adults living with children</a> said their children either sometimes or often didn’t eat enough in the previous week because they couldn’t afford enough food. Research has shown that the <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/august/usda-s-national-school-lunch-program-reduces-food-insecurity">National School Lunch Program</a>, which funds these meals, <a href="https://theconversation.com/americas-poorest-children-wont-get-nutritious-meals-with-school-cafeterias-closed-due-to-the-coronavirus-133341">reduces food insecurity and improves student nutrition</a>. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>The meal distribution data and interviews generated a snapshot of how Connecticut initially tackled this challenge. We still don’t know which strategies made the biggest difference, and which have continued to be used across the state or nation. Research on the impact of keeping up free school meals on child food insecurity rates during the pandemic, as well as other health and academic outcomes, will be important. </p>
<p>A careful evaluation of the innovation taking place in the 2020-2021 school year may yield ideas on how to improve school meals in the long term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlene B. Schwartz receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture and the Connecticut State Department of Education. </span></em></p>It helped that school food service staff quickly changed their preparation, packaging and distribution methods to feed students who were no longer eating in cafeterias.Marlene B. Schwartz, Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1423482020-07-14T12:40:15Z2020-07-14T12:40:15ZFederal spending covers only 8% of public school budgets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346723/original/file-20200709-58-1fr8t19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C50%2C5637%2C2430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The White House is threatening to cut funds to school districts that don't resume daily in-person instruction.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-speaks-as-vice-president-secretary-news-photo/1215228995">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<p>State and local tax dollars cover the bulk of U.S. public school funding.</p>
<p>The federal government spends just under <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/school-finances/data/tables.html">US$55 billion per year on K-12</a> education, in addition to outlays for <a href="http://nieer.org/state-preschool-yearbooks">early childhood education</a> and post-secondary programs like loans and grants for <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/10/two-decades-of-change-in-federal-and-state-higher-education-funding">college tuition</a>.</p>
<p>That’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/school-finances/data/tables.html">just 8%</a> of the total $720 billion it costs to run the nation’s public schools during the 2017-18 school year, the most recent national data available.</p>
<p>This amounts to around $1,100 per K-12 student.</p>
<p>Federal funding has <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_235.10.asp">never surpassed 10%</a> of total public school funding, except from 2010 to 2012 when the federal government sought to reduce the <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/implementation.html">school spending cuts</a> <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/688011/summary">local and state governments made during the Great Recession</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/edfp_a_00245">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 sent</a> $54 billion – the equivalent of $56.5 billion, adjusted for inflation, in spending today – to schools. That infusion most likely <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED533671.pdf">saved thousands of education jobs</a> from budget-based layoffs. In contrast, recent federal aid provided so far, through the March 2020 CARES Act, amounts to <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/05/07/supporting-students-and-promoting-economic-recovery-in-the-time-of-covid-19/">only about $13 billion</a> for school districts, with an extra $3 billion for governors to use for K-12 education at their discretion.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<p>These funds may be spread even thinner if districts must <a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-private-schools-federal-emergency-funds-slated-for-low-income-students-will-shortchange-at-risk-kids-138503">allocate funds to neighboring private schools</a> based on enrollment levels. The Education Department, led by Betsy DeVos, issued guidance with this <a href="https://www.aasa.org/policy-blogs.aspx?id=44687">directive</a>, but several states including <a href="https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/cr/esserfaqs.asp">California</a> and <a href="https://in.chalkbeat.org/2020/5/12/21256499/indiana-rejects-guidance-from-devos-to-reroute-more-coronavirus-relief-to-private-schools">Indiana</a> have pushed back, arguing that federal funds for private schools should be limited to aid targeting low-income students.</p>
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<p>Most K-12 federal funding supports the nation’s most vulnerable students through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/americas-poorest-children-wont-get-nutritious-meals-with-school-cafeterias-closed-due-to-the-coronavirus-133341">National School Lunch Program</a> and the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=158">Title I program</a>, which targets funding to schools serving low-income students. Federal K-12 funding also supports <a href="https://theconversation.com/trusting-states-to-do-right-by-special-education-students-is-a-mistake-98820">special education</a> – providing services for students with special needs.</p>
<p>In short, federal funds make up a small proportion of total funding for U.S. K-12 education, but those funds largely serve children facing economic hardship or with learning differences.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/08/trump-schools-reopening-federal-funding-352311">White House now says it may cut spending</a> for school districts that don’t resume daily in-person instruction when the next school year gets underway, or perhaps make additional funding contingent on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/donald-trump-threat-to-cut-school-funding-fact-check/index.html">students being in classrooms five days a week</a>. As a scholar of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F8pdFSgAAAAJ&hl=en">education finance</a>, I’m concerned that this approach would harm the most vulnerable students and families. At a time when schools really need federal leadership and financial support, the administration is threatening to withhold funding from the highest-need schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142348/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David S. Knight receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the American School Counselor Association.</span></em></p>US cities and states are responsible for the vast majority of K-12 funding.David S. Knight, Assistant Professor of Education Finance and Policy, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1333412020-03-13T12:05:04Z2020-03-13T12:05:04ZAmerica’s poorest children won’t get nutritious meals with school cafeterias closed due to the coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320221/original/file-20200312-111227-gask9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An East Brainerd Elementary School lunch, Chattanooga, Tennessee</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lunch-options-available-to-students-at-the-east-brainerd-news-photo/1178703124">The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Schools aren’t only places where kids learn. They are also places where kids eat. </p>
<p>Thanks to the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp">National School Lunch Program</a>, 30 million U.S. children – some 60% of all school-aged kids – regularly eat some combination of breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks at school. Federal subsidies ensure that school meals are affordable for all children to <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/statement-president-upon-signing-national-school-lunch-act">stave off hunger and malnutrition</a>. </p>
<p>But what is happening to meals provided by the nation’s largest child nutrition program as public schools shut their doors to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic? </p>
<p>Based on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LULSgaYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> on how <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0013189X18797609">schools provide meals for poor children</a>, I worry that these closures might leave some of the nation’s poorest children without access to nutritious meals.</p>
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<h2>School meals address hunger</h2>
<p>Despite persistent concerns about the <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=1593844">nutritional quality of school lunches</a> and wasted cafeteria food, serving school meals clearly improves students’ consumption of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2008.11.005">calcium, meat and vegetables</a> and a wide array of essential vitamins and minerals.</p>
<p>This nutritional boost is particularly vital for the 18% of U.S. kids whose parents sometimes or frequently <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/food-insecurity">can’t afford enough nutritious food</a> for the whole family. These children <a href="http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/42320">get approximately a quarter of the calories they consume</a> from school meals.</p>
<p>Empty cupboards and missed meals substantially <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0645">threaten children’s healthy development</a>. Research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20506">tracking the long-term effects of 1960s-era policy efforts that expanded</a> the National School Lunch Program indicates that when kids regularly eat lunch, they’re more likely to finish high school and perhaps go on to college.</p>
<p>Further, over the last few years <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/community-eligibility-provision">a new federal program</a> designed to provide free lunches to all students in schools that enroll large proportions of low-income children appears to be working. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3333530">Test scores</a> are rising and <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w24986">student behavior</a> is improving at the schools taking part in it. </p>
<p>Under federal law, no student pays more than US$2.90 for their lunch. But about <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_204.10.asp?current=yes">half of public school students pay far less</a>. Families whose household income is less than 185% of the poverty line, currently about $48,000 per year for a family of four, pay up to 40 cents for each meal. Students whose families of the same size get by on less than 130% of that same mark, or below $34,000, pay nothing at all. </p>
<p>More than two-thirds of the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/child-nutrition-tables">children who eat school meals</a> get them for free or at a steep discount.</p>
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<h2>How to feed kids when schools close</h2>
<p>Many low-income families of course can get some additional help through other kinds of federal aid.</p>
<p>That includes the <a href="https://theconversation.com/scaling-back-snap-for-self-reliance-clashes-with-the-original-goals-of-food-stamps-128839">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>. But SNAP’s <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/recipient/eligibility">complex eligibility requirements</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305365">exclude many Americans</a> who are are having trouble getting food on their tables.</p>
<p>What’s more, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0002831218761337">SNAP benefits are limited</a>. For example, a family of four can get no more than $646 in this aid per month, typically falling short of covering the full cost of all nutritional needs.</p>
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<p>Absent fundamental changes to the nation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/safety-net-2185">safety net</a>, I believe school leaders should make sure that schools keep playing an important role in student nutrition – even when schools are closed to protect public health.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://civileats.com/2020/03/06/coronavirus-is-closing-schools-heres-what-it-means-for-millions-of-kids-who-rely-on-school-meals/">schools are indeed looking for ways to provide meals</a> to students whose schools are closed due to the pandemic. The USDA has identified one path. It is letting schools that participate in <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/summer-food-service-program">a summer meals program for kids from low-income areas</a> to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/child-nutrition-program-waiver-request-guidance-and-protocol-revised">serve meals even if they close due to this pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>While this strikes me as a helpful step, I don’t think that it will be enough.</p>
<p>That’s because the schools eligible to take part in the summertime program serve <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/child-nutrition-programs/summer-food-service-program.aspx">just a tenth of the children who participate in the school lunch program</a>. Unless Congress acts to provide emergency funds to cover the cost of feeding students whose schools have closed – and fast – it will be up to local communities and their food banks to fill the nutritional gap.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thurston "Thad" Domina receives funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.</span></em></p>The millions of US children whose parents can’t always afford enough nutritious food for their families get about a quarter of their calories from what they eat at school.Thurston Domina, Professor, Educational Policy and Organizational Leadership, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1334252020-03-13T12:02:31Z2020-03-13T12:02:31ZCoronavirus, kids and school closings: A public health expert answers 4 questions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320305/original/file-20200312-111223-zzg3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C25%2C5724%2C3603&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The front gate of New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, N.Y. The school was closed March 11, 2020 as part of efforts to contain spread of coronavirus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Containment-Area/32b5d4410f1c432baae285487eafd5c9/2/0">AP Photo/Chris Erhmann</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Leer en <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-los-ninos-y-las-escuelas-experta-en-salud-publica-contesta-4-preguntas-134314">español</a></em></p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: The World Health Organization has declared a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/11/health/coronavirus-pandemic-world-health-organization/index.html">coronoavirus pandemic</a>, and more cases have been announced in several states. Public health scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=U2cTSqkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Aubree Gordon</a> explains why schools across the nation are closing.</em> </p>
<h2>1. Can children get COVID-19?</h2>
<p>Children can catch the virus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, the disease that has infected more than 121,000 and caused more than 4,000 deaths. However, for reasons that we public health officials and physicians do not understand, most <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/10/coronavirus-is-mysteriously-sparing-kids-killing-elderly-understanding-why-may-help-defeat-virus/">children do not seem to get very sick</a> from the infection. In fact, some children may not display any symptoms at all. </p>
<p>In China, where the best clinical data are available, fewer infections were documented in children and teenagers than in older people. This same pattern was seen during the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/01.inf.0000247136.28950.41">2002-2003 outbreaks of SARS coronavirus</a>, a virus that is closely related to SARS-CoV-2. </p>
<p>It is not clear whether children may be less susceptible to the virus, meaning that they are less likely to catch it, or if they just have milder symptoms than adults on average, and thus are less likely to be detected as cases. It’s also important to note that there have been no reports of fatal cases of COVID-19 in children under the age of 10. In older children and teenagers, there has only been a single documented death to my knowledge. So, kids are much less likely to get COVID-19 than adults and if they do catch it, they typically have mild illness.</p>
<h2>2. What role do schools play?</h2>
<p>Respiratory viral diseases are spread when people come into contact with one another. This means that any place where people gather in close proximity can lead to viral transmission. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/does-closing-schools-slow-spread-novel-coronavirus?utm_campaign=news_daily_2020-03-10&et_rid=304162689&et_cid=3239727">One of the best ways</a> that we have to help control epidemics or pandemics of viruses like influenza is to close schools. This is because children tend to be very susceptible to common human respiratory viruses. They shed, or pass on, virus at higher levels and for longer than adults, which makes them more likely to transmit the disease. And they typically have poorer hygiene habits than adults. </p>
<p>Thus, most countries’ pandemic plans include plans for school closures. But, it’s important to note that school closures are not guaranteed to reduce transmission. Timing of the closure is very important. Closures early in the epidemic are more likely to be effective, and they may be ineffective if children just gather in other locations.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320288/original/file-20200312-111232-rfy9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320288/original/file-20200312-111232-rfy9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320288/original/file-20200312-111232-rfy9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320288/original/file-20200312-111232-rfy9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320288/original/file-20200312-111232-rfy9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320288/original/file-20200312-111232-rfy9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320288/original/file-20200312-111232-rfy9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, New York City School’s Chancellor Richard Carranza and others greet students as they exit their first day of school Setp. 5, 2019. Carranza and De Blasio have said closing schools is a last resort. Mpi43/MediaPunch/IPX.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mayor-Bill-De-Blasio-visits-NYC-Schools/512dbdb7036b41ff9f3ce8d1ca754982/66/0">AP Photo/Mpi43/MediaPunch /IPX</a></span>
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<h2>3. Why close schools if children do not get very sick with COVID-19?</h2>
<p>While SARS-CoV-2 appears to rarely cause severe disease in children, it is still possible that children play an important role in transmission. It is important to note that people who have symptoms of respiratory diseases, such as coughing and sneezing, are generally considered to be more infectious than those who are not showing symptoms. That is because the virus spreads when a person coughs or sneezes.</p>
<p>COVID-19 transmits very efficiently, and people do not have pre-existing immunity. Without controls, a large proportion of the population will become infected in any area where the virus circulates. And because of the severity of this virus in older adults, this would cause substantial severe illness and death. </p>
<p>In areas where large outbreaks occur, the health system may become overwhelmed, leading to an increasing fatality rate for COVID-19 and an increase in deaths from all causes. The severity of the situation thus requires communities to do what they can to limit transmission.</p>
<h2>4. If closing schools might help, why not just close them all now?</h2>
<p>It is important to remember that there are a lot of economic and social costs that come with school closures. When schools are closed, children miss out on learning. Extended closures may lead to children falling behind. They also cause an increase in worker absenteeism when parents have to stay home with their kids. That in turn affects the economy as a whole and may undermine key services, such as health care and law enforcement. </p>
<p>From a social perspective, low-income and single-parent households are particularly affected. Employers may not grant paid sick time to workers, leaving parents to choose between leaving children in less-than-ideal care or unsupervised, or not being able to pay for basic needs. </p>
<p>Schools often also serve as an important social support, <a href="https://theconversation.com/americas-poorest-children-wont-get-nutritious-meals-with-school-cafeterias-closed-due-to-the-coronavirus-133341">providing hot meals</a> and needed services to low-income and <a href="http://theconversation.com/coronavirus-could-hit-homeless-hard-and-that-could-hit-everyone-hard-133214">homeless</a> children. Indeed, for this exact reason, New York City leaders have announced that they see <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/nyregion/nyc-schools-coronavirus.html">school closures as a last resort</a>. Thus, the decision to close schools and when to close them is very complicated and will depend on a number of factors.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aubree Gordon receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>So far, children have not been as sickened by the coronavirus as adults. So why do officials talk about closing schools? And what does this mean for you as a parent? A public health expert explains.Aubree Gordon, Professor of Public Health, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1108622019-04-05T10:43:17Z2019-04-05T10:43:17ZIt can take a village to feed hungry kids in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267444/original/file-20190403-177178-1gf2g52.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Assembling backpacks of food for students to take home in Flint, Mich.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.fbem.org/programs/backpack-program/">Kathleen Payton/Food Bank of Eastern Michigan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/child-hunger-facts">One in 6</a> American children faces hunger and <a href="https://www.nokidhungry.org/sites/default/files/HIOS.pdf?_ga=2.158838642.994859008.1549598355-1996888792.1549598355">3 out of 4</a> teachers report regularly seeing hungry kids in their classrooms. In response, <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R43783.html#_Toc523154337">school meals</a> make up a large fraction of federal food assistance.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/national-school-lunch-program-nslp">National School Lunch Program</a> is the second-largest federal food assistance program, serving <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/cn/NSLPFactSheet.pdf">30.4 million</a> children. It is complemented by the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/sbp/school-breakfast-program-sbp">School Breakfast Program</a>, the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/afterschool-snacks-faqs">Afterschool Snack Service</a> and the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/summer-food-service-program">Summer Food Service Program</a>. Though these programs are essential, they are not enough.</p>
<p>On a local scale, organizations such as food banks assist food-insecure children and families, but their work within schools is typically limited. In my roles as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7i7qjxUAAAAJ&hl=en">researcher</a> of food in schools and as a <a href="https://foodforlanecounty.org/">food bank</a> board member, I often see opportunities for more collaboration between schools and communities to help fill the gaps in feeding kids whose families face economic hardship. </p>
<h2>Local efforts are limited</h2>
<p>In some communities, food banks and K-12 schools already work together as partners. </p>
<p>One way this occurs is through <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/hunger-relief-programs/backpack-program">backpack programs</a> that give students easily prepared foods, like boxed macaroni and cheese and canned beans, for the weekend. Backpack programs, such as those in <a href="https://www.fbem.org/programs/backpack-program/">Northeast Michigan</a> and <a href="https://afac.org/about/who-we-serve/backpack-buddies/">Arlington, Virginia</a>, are highly local. </p>
<p>Often these initiatives exist because someone, such as a high school teacher I collaborated with on a study, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-57174-4_11">Melissa Washburn</a>, sees a need and reaches out to local food banks for support. Washburn, a health teacher at a public high school in Lansing, Michigan, partnered with a nearby food bank to initiate a backpack program that delivered shelf-stable items. Wanting to improve the quality of the food in the packs, Washburn secured grants from a local nonprofit and the schools’ alumni association to include locally sourced fruits and vegetables. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/12/30/372906273/beyond-free-lunch-schools-open-food-pantries-for-hungry-families">Food pantries located in schools</a> are another source of support for hungry students and their families. These efforts also often depend on one or a handful of dedicated people who see a need and amass volunteers for the task. </p>
<p>Local efforts are important and should be the norm rather than the exception. <a href="http://www.rootcausecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Key-Factors-for-School-Based-Food-Pantries-Perspectives-From-Food-Bank-and-School-Pantry-Personnel.pdf">School-based food pantries</a> and weekend <a href="http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/tools-for-schools/find-challenges/at-home-challenges/1276-backpack-programs">backpack programs</a> should be a routine feature at all public schools. </p>
<h2>Bringing in the village</h2>
<p>While school food pantries and backpack programs are important, we need to welcome more ideas to the table to feed children in schools. Because funding for public education is limited and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1476750318811920">teachers are overextended</a>, the village needs to help support these endeavors. </p>
<p>There are countless models for marshaling communities to feed students. Service organizations, faith-based groups and local clubs can step in to help.
Food banks, in particular, are in excellent positions to foster connections between schools and these groups. For example, a network of churches in Junction City, Oregon, works with the food bank to supply items, such as peanut butter, for backpack programs in local schools.</p>
<p>Partnerships between businesses and nonprofits, such as the <a href="https://foodforlanecounty.org/get-help/more-food-programs/programs-for-children/">Cereal for Youth program</a> in Lane County, Oregon, are another model. This program brings three local businesses together with the food bank to provide free high-quality granola to kids 18 years and under in schools or afterschool programs. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Cereal for Youth program distributes free granola to Oregon kids in schools.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Another important initiative is lobbying for better federal or state school food assistance. In Oregon, nonprofits, food banks and other organizations have formed the <a href="https://oregonhunger.org/hunger-free-schools/">Hunger-Free Schools Coalition</a> to encourage state legislators to make Oregon the first state to provide universal free school meals.</p>
<p>Food can also provide a gateway to building community in and around schools. For example, our food bank nutrition educator teaches family cooking classes at a local elementary school. Free evening or weekend meals for school communities with food provided by food banks and partners are another possibility. </p>
<p>Schools are places where food assistance can have great impact on vulnerable members of society. Community organizations, businesses and food assistance agencies all have roles to play in this effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Riggs Stapleton is affiliated with Food for Lane County as a (volunteer) member of the Board of Directors. </span></em></p>Backpack programs that give students easily prepared foods, like boxed macaroni and cheese and canned beans, can make a difference.Sarah Riggs Stapleton, Assistant Professor, Education Studies, College of Education, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020182018-08-28T21:06:21Z2018-08-28T21:06:21ZHow to make a national school food program happen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233371/original/file-20180824-149463-4d0eb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Rome, 70 per cent of ingredients in school meals are required by law to be organic. In Brazil, food is a constitutional right for children. Canada lags shamefully behind.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As summer winds down and a new school year begins, the conversation about food in schools is once again heating up. </p>
<p>In June, Sen. Art Eggleton tabled a motion <a href="http://healthscienceandlaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Senate-M-358.EF_-1.pdf">calling on the federal government to consult with key stakeholders to develop a cost-shared universal nutrition program across Canada</a>. </p>
<p>He is not the first senator to have made this call. Back in 1997, the <a href="http://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/36-1/FINA/report-2/page-45#D">House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance</a> made the recommendation “to create a national school nutrition program” but no action was ever taken. In 2015, <a href="https://sencanada.ca/content/sen/committee/421/SOCI/Reports/2016-02-25_Revised_report_Obesity_in_Canada_e.pdf">the Standing Committee on Social Affairs Science and Technology and the Minister of Health</a> advocated “for childcare facility and school programs related to breakfast and lunch programs… and nutrition literacy courses.” </p>
<p>A universal, national school food program would make sure that all students from kindergarten to Grade 12 have the same access to healthy food in school. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-your-kids-need-a-national-school-food-program-83135">The case for such a program in Canada is already strong</a>. So what needs to happen to make this a reality? </p>
<h2>A patchwork of programs</h2>
<p>Canada is lagging behind other high-income countries in providing nutritious food to children. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/890-building-the-future-children-and-the-sustainable-development-goals-in-rich-countries.html">UNICEF report</a> published last year, Canada ranked 37th out of 41 countries on access to nutritious food for children. That is below the United States. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233359/original/file-20180823-149469-1ahlygh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233359/original/file-20180823-149469-1ahlygh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233359/original/file-20180823-149469-1ahlygh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233359/original/file-20180823-149469-1ahlygh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233359/original/file-20180823-149469-1ahlygh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233359/original/file-20180823-149469-1ahlygh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233359/original/file-20180823-149469-1ahlygh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By using local foods, a national school lunch program could double as a local economic growth strategy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One reason for this is Canada’s patchwork of programs that serve only a fraction of kids. Funding for programs comes from several different stakeholders, including provincial and territorial governments, municipal governments and charities. This contrasts sharply with school food programs in other countries.</p>
<p>In Brazil for example, food is a constitutional right, which means that a national program feeds <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233876347_The_Brazilian_School_Feeding_Programme_an_Example_of_an_Integrated_Programme_in_Support_of_Food_and_Nutrition_Security">47 million students at 190,000 schools each day</a>. </p>
<p>The benefits are multiple, not only improving student nutrition, health and social development, but providing wider employment. The program supports local food systems and regional economic development, since 30 per cent of food purchased for the program comes from small family farms.</p>
<p>In Italy, school meals are a central part of education about national culture and health. In Rome, <a href="http://www.gamberorosso.it/en/food-news/1045774-school-lunches-in-italy-setting-a-healthy-pattern-for-adult-life">70 per cent of ingredients in school meals are required by law to be organic.</a> These are also local or regional foods, making school meals a local economic growth strategy as well. </p>
<p>In Finland, school lunches, which are free for all students, <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/00070700910931940">are the healthiest meal that students eat during the whole day.</a></p>
<h2>It’s time for action</h2>
<p>These international examples illustrate how healthy food provision is prioritized elsewhere in the world. This pays off through an impressive return on investment for school food programs — of <a href="http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/resources/wfp281517.pdf">$3 to $10 for every dollar invested</a>. </p>
<p>Because children’s eating habits are more easily influenced than those of adults, interventions aimed at children are also more likely to have the potential to reduce future health-care costs. </p>
<p>Children spend on average six to seven hours or 50 per cent of their time awake at school which makes schools the ideal medium for instilling lifelong eating habits <a href="http://dcjournal.ca/doi/10.3148/cjdpr-2017-029">in a non-stigmatizing way</a>. </p>
<p>Public support for a national program is growing. Martha O’Connor, former director general of the now defunct Breakfast for Learning Program affirms that <a href="http://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/36-1/FINA/report-2/page-45#D">“70 per cent of Canadians believe that child hunger in Canada is more important than national unity or the deficit.</a> Strategic investment in a national school nutrition program is an investment in the future of all Canadians.” </p>
<p>Political will is essential for a national school food program to become a reality. And Eggleton’s motion is catalyzing this important conversation about the state of children’s health in Canada. </p>
<h2>Soda tax as revenue</h2>
<p>Growing rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease among Canada’s population are unsustainable. <a href="https://foodsecurecanada.org/sites/foodsecurecanada.org/files/coalition_for_healthy_school_food_0.pdf">The Coalition for Healthy School Food</a>, comprised of 40 organizations across Canada, estimates that a national, universal healthy school food program would cost $1.8 billion per year. </p>
<p>The Coalition is calling on the Government of Canada to initially invest $360 million, through provincial and territorial transfers, in healthy school food programs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233525/original/file-20180824-149484-yc7f7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233525/original/file-20180824-149484-yc7f7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233525/original/file-20180824-149484-yc7f7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233525/original/file-20180824-149484-yc7f7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233525/original/file-20180824-149484-yc7f7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233525/original/file-20180824-149484-yc7f7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233525/original/file-20180824-149484-yc7f7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A soda tax could almost finance a national school food program throughout Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The eventual goal would be universal coverage, through a cost-shared model of joint investments from the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, as well as some investment from not-for-profits and parents where applicable. </p>
<p>The United Kingdom recently implemented a promising strategy of directing the revenue from a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/546588/Childhood_obesity_2016__2__acc.pdf">national sugary drinks levy</a> to fund school food programs. Diabetes Canada, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Childhood Obesity Foundation <a href="https://sugarydrinkslevy.ca/">are making the same recommendation for Canada</a>. </p>
<p>A soda tax could produce $1.7 billion in annual revenue for Canada, just short of the Coalition’s estimate to fund a national school food program. </p>
<p>Given the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4907549/">burden that chronic, diet-related diseases already place on the Canadian health care system</a> — a cost estimated at $190 billion each year — a $1.8 billion investment in the health of our next generation is surely a small price to pay? </p>
<p>The cost of implementing a national school food program will pay for itself through <a href="https://www.sunlife.ca/ca/Learn+and+Plan/Health/Community/Feeding+our+future+Why+school+nutrition+programs+matter?vgnLocale=en_CA">improved mental health, learning and other health outcomes</a>. </p>
<p>Schools have a strong history of successful public health intervention and a national school food program is a critical investment that we all can support. It’s a no-brainer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara FL Kirk receives funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Heart and Stroke, the Lawson Foundation, the Max Bell Foundation and the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation. She is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which is advocating for a national school food program. She is also a board member of Canada Bikes, a not-for-profit that promotes everyday cycling in Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amberley T. Ruetz receives funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for her current research on the economic impact of the farm-to-school program. She is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which is advocating for a national school food program. She also consults with the Ontario Student Nutrition Program, Southwest Region. </span></em></p>There would be many benefits from a national school food program, including a chance to teach children healthy eating habits that could last a lifetime. Why can’t it happen?Sara F.L. Kirk, Professor of Health Promotion; Scientific Director of the Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie UniversityAmberley T. Ruetz, PhD Candidate in Geography, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883712017-12-12T23:15:20Z2017-12-12T23:15:20ZIs your child’s school an obesity risk?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198867/original/file-20171212-9389-mwxdjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elementary schools provide excellent targets for interventions to prevent obesity as children spend much of their day and consume many of their calories at school.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32129-3/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr">Child obesity rates are skyrocketing</a> globally. Young children spend the lion’s share of their time in school, consuming a large portion of their daily calories there and developing lifelong eating habits and food preferences with their peers.</p>
<p>Do the schools attended by children influence their weight? As a child development researcher interested in child education, health and poverty, I recently had the unique opportunity to work with epidemiologist <a href="http://www.epi.inrs.ca/?page_id=538">Tracie Barnett</a> to examine this question. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo201739">resulting study, published in the International Journal of Obesity</a>, found that schools with the unhealthiest food environments were more likely to be located in disadvantaged communities.</p>
<p>We also found children between the ages of 10 and 12 who attended schools with lower-quality food environments had higher amounts of central body fat (or “central adiposity” in technical terms) after two years than children attending healthier schools. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22437560">Central body fat is fatty tissue that is stored around the waist and abdomen</a>. It poses a greater risk to long-term health than fat stored elsewhere on the body.</p>
<h2>Food environments in schools</h2>
<p>To understand how a school may influence a child’s weight, we analyzed information on 431 elementary school students attending 246 schools. </p>
<p>All schools were located in urban areas of the province of Québec and were followed as part of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21785124">Québec Adipose and Lifestyle and Investigation in Youth</a> (QUALITY) — a larger study investigating the evolution and course of childhood of obesity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198836/original/file-20171212-9389-18et7rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198836/original/file-20171212-9389-18et7rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198836/original/file-20171212-9389-18et7rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198836/original/file-20171212-9389-18et7rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198836/original/file-20171212-9389-18et7rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198836/original/file-20171212-9389-18et7rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198836/original/file-20171212-9389-18et7rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reducing childhood obesity requires understanding the complex genetic, psychological and socio-economic causes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this sample, we studied the proximity and quality of food that students can easily access at school. </p>
<p>We identified three different school types: 1) those with unhealthy food environments inside the school; 2) those with unhealthy food environments inside and surrounding the school; and 3) those with healthy food environments inside and surrounding the schools. </p>
<p>We assessed the healthfulness of the food environment inside a school using interviews with the school principal, who answered questions about the food sold on the premises and the quality of the school menu. </p>
<p>We measured the food environment surrounding a school by the geographical density of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores within walking distance. </p>
<p>Finally, central body fat was <a href="http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/1559514">assessed using X-ray technology</a>. This provided us with precise measures of children’s lean and fatty body mass. </p>
<p>Our analyses took into account several potentially confounding factors, including family socioeconomic status and parental weight.</p>
<h2>Reducing child obesity</h2>
<p>A great number of countries — including <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/healthyschools/policy.html">Canada</a>, the <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/healthyschools/policy.html">United States</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/school-meals-healthy-eating-standards%E2%80%8B">the U.K.</a> — have put in place policies to ensure that high-quality foods are offered and sold within elementary and high schools. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, our research suggests considerable inequality exists among the school food environments available to children. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198870/original/file-20171212-9410-6o6mgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198870/original/file-20171212-9410-6o6mgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198870/original/file-20171212-9410-6o6mgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198870/original/file-20171212-9410-6o6mgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198870/original/file-20171212-9410-6o6mgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198870/original/file-20171212-9410-6o6mgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198870/original/file-20171212-9410-6o6mgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of central body fat according to school type attended.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers, health-care practitioners and stakeholders recognize preventing and reducing childhood obesity requires a multi-faceted approach — one that takes into account its biological (e.g. <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/312/5771/279">genetic</a>), psychological (e.g. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3109/17477166.2011.615996/full">stress levels</a>) and social-environmental causes (e.g. the influence of factors such as <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/1/6.long">neighbourhood and poverty</a>). </p>
<p>Even though biological and psychological factors contribute to obesity in important ways, there’s been increasing interest in social and environmental causes. That’s because they can offer cost-effective and modifiable targets for interventions. </p>
<p>Indeed, the school food environment is a particularly attractive target for intervention since the vast majority of children spend so much of their time in school.</p>
<h2>The family context of fitness</h2>
<p>Our study is not without limitations. First, our measurement of the school food environment inside schools was solely based on interviews conducted with school principals. </p>
<p>It is possible their reports were affected by their ability to recall certain details. In addition, principals’ reports could have been biased by their desire to present their schools in a more positive light. </p>
<p>Our findings are also limited by the use of a correlational design. We cannot rule out the possibility that some characteristics of children’s family lives might have determined the type of school they attended and their level of fitness. To reduce that possibility, all of our analyses took into account parents’ education and income, two important determinants of socioeconomic status and health. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198862/original/file-20171212-9426-1hnps6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198862/original/file-20171212-9426-1hnps6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198862/original/file-20171212-9426-1hnps6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198862/original/file-20171212-9426-1hnps6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198862/original/file-20171212-9426-1hnps6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198862/original/file-20171212-9426-1hnps6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198862/original/file-20171212-9426-1hnps6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In schools without a lunch program, children are restricted to food from home, vending machines or food outlets in the vicinity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, our sample was restricted to Caucasian children with one or two obese parents. The risk for developing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12948432">cardiometabolic diseases</a> (including obesity) is considered higher for those with two obese parents than for those with only one. </p>
<p>In order to assess whether our findings applied to a wider population of children, replications with lower-risk youth and ethnically diverse populations are needed.</p>
<h2>Winning the battle against obesity</h2>
<p>There is evidence carefully designed and implemented interventions aimed at improving the food environments in schools <a href="https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1479-5868-8-7?site=http://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com">can improve the quality of children’s diets</a>. </p>
<p>Our results suggest the food environments around schools should also become a target for intervention and social policy. </p>
<p>Finally, according to our analyses, schools in disadvantaged communities may have the most difficulty providing healthy foods to their students. </p>
<p>Future research could help identify some of the barriers that prevent schools from implementing successful healthy food policies in order to better support their efforts in the future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198815/original/file-20171212-9451-1coa28u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198815/original/file-20171212-9451-1coa28u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198815/original/file-20171212-9451-1coa28u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198815/original/file-20171212-9451-1coa28u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198815/original/file-20171212-9451-1coa28u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198815/original/file-20171212-9451-1coa28u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198815/original/file-20171212-9451-1coa28u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food environments inside schools include cafeterias and vending machines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our best chances for winning the battle against obesity and cardiometabolic disease lie in our ability to implement preventive interventions as early as possible. </p>
<p>We recommend increasing efforts to create healthier food environments in elementary schools where children spend much of their time, consume a large portion of their daily calories and acquire the basis of lifelong eating habits and preferences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Fitzpatrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows that children attending schools with low-quality food environments, in poorer neighborhoods, gain more central body fat – putting them at risk of obesity and cardiometabolic disease.Caroline Fitzpatrick, Researcher at Concordia's PERFORM center and Assistant Professor of Psychology, Université Sainte-AnneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/831352017-09-05T23:44:52Z2017-09-05T23:44:52ZWhy your kids need a national school food program<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184587/original/file-20170904-9750-15e6i9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canada is one of very few industrialized countries not to have a national school food program. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children who <a href="https://are.berkeley.edu/%7Emlanderson/pdf/school_lunch.pdf">eat nutritious lunches feel better and learn better</a>. The evidence is clear and consistent. So why, in a rich country like Canada, will so many children be sitting in their new classrooms feeling hungry this week? </p>
<p><a href="http://proof.utoronto.ca/resources/fact-sheets/#children">One in six Canadian children</a> lives in a household too poor to put nutritious food on the table. <a href="http://davidhammond.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2016-Fruit-Veg-Consumption-J-School-Hlth-Minaker-et-al.pdf">Fewer than one in 10 Canadian children</a> and youth are eating the amount of fruits and vegetables recommended for healthy development. Called food insecurity, insufficient access to affordable and nutritious foods is a problem that is on the rise across Canada. </p>
<p>Good nutrition impacts children’s health, well-being and learning, and if children are not adequately nourished during childhood, the impact can last a lifetime. Hunger in childhood has <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/383613">long-term adverse consequences for health</a>. </p>
<p>This is why I, and others, have been <a href="http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1308652-national-school-food-program-an-urgent-necessity">calling for a national school food program</a> to be <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/28/national-school-food-program-needed.html">established in Canada</a>. </p>
<h2>Healthy foods, better moods</h2>
<p>My own research reveals that school children experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity report <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980014001414">more mood problems and lower health-related quality of life</a> than children from food secure households. </p>
<p>In this research of over 5,800 Grade 5 children, mood problems were common even among children from households classed as marginally food insecure. Food insecurity was also associated with lower diet quality and higher body weight. This suggests a greater reliance on energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods when money for food is tight. </p>
<p>In a subsequent study, we found that lower diet quality, along with breakfast skipping and sugary drink consumption, were <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/11/14857">each associated with lower academic performance</a>, reinforcing the value of good nutrition to the health and learning of Canadian children. </p>
<h2>Universally available</h2>
<p>There is no better time to take action. According to a recent <a href="http://www.unicef.ca/en/unicef-report-card-14-child-well-being-sustainable-world">UNICEF report</a>, Canada ranks 37 out of 41 countries in providing access to nutritious food for children. Canada’s mediocre ranking in child well-being among other rich countries hasn’t improved over the past decade either. We are failing our children right now. And we will continue to fail them in the future if we don’t act soon, and fast.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184588/original/file-20170904-9717-rum2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184588/original/file-20170904-9717-rum2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184588/original/file-20170904-9717-rum2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184588/original/file-20170904-9717-rum2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184588/original/file-20170904-9717-rum2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184588/original/file-20170904-9717-rum2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184588/original/file-20170904-9717-rum2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the absence of a national lunch program, healthy foods are enjoyed only by those children whose parents have the available resources.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Action is needed to address many contributing factors to food insecurity, like low income, poverty and the increasing costs of healthy and nutritious foods. But the advantage of school food programs is that they are universally available to all children. They can support the development of healthy eating patterns for <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/12751/chapter/1">all students</a>, regardless of income. </p>
<p>Universal school food programs make sense because all children attend school, spending more of their waking hours in this environment than any other. Yet Canada is one of only a few industrialized countries <a href="http://dcjournal.ca/doi/10.3148/cjdpr-2016-037">without a national school food program</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, school food provision is left up to individual provinces and territories, meaning there are no federally mandated standards for foods served or sold in schools. This leads to <a href="http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/apnm-2017-0125#.WaRu160ZNBz">inequitable access to nutritious foods during school hours</a> for students from across the country. </p>
<h2>The right thing to do</h2>
<p><a href="https://foodsecurecanada.org/sites/foodsecurecanada.org/files/coalition_for_healthy_school_food_0.pdf">The Coalition for Healthy School Food</a>, comprised of 30 organizations across Canada, is calling for an investment of $1 billion, phased in over five years, to establish a cost-shared Universal Healthy School Food Program. This will enable all students in Canada to have access to healthy meals at school every day. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184589/original/file-20170904-9729-131vsk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184589/original/file-20170904-9729-131vsk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184589/original/file-20170904-9729-131vsk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184589/original/file-20170904-9729-131vsk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184589/original/file-20170904-9729-131vsk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184589/original/file-20170904-9729-131vsk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184589/original/file-20170904-9729-131vsk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children eating a healthy school meal in Milan, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While this may seem like a lot of money, the return on investment for school food programs is an impressive <a href="http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/resources/wfp281517.pdf">$3 to $10 for every dollar invested</a>. This represents the added value to a country’s overall development, including increased productivity due to improvements in educational achievement. </p>
<p>Given the burden that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4907549/">chronic diseases</a> already place on the Canadian health care system — a cost estimated at $190 billion each year — a $1 billion investment in the health of our next generation is a small price to pay. </p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/heapro/dat055">Public and political support are essential </a> to address the systemic barriers that undermine the health of children across Canada. If we want to improve the health of our population, from the youngest to the oldest, we must examine why so few of us are able to adopt healthy behaviours. And this requires us to look at our social norms and values that make it so hard to access healthy foods. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/management/News/News%20&%20Events/21135-Food-Price-Report-Eng-2017-Final.pdf">food prices on the rise</a>, and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-food-industry-conspiring-to-make-you-fat-81537">food environment that is not supportive of health</a>, we have to move beyond a focus on individual choice and responsibility as a solution to child hunger. Our children deserve more, and better, when it comes to good nutrition. </p>
<p>A national school food program is, put simply, the right thing to do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara FL Kirk receives funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Heart and Stroke, the Lawson Foundation, the Max Bell Foundation and the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation. She is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which is advocating for a national school food program. She is also a board member of Canada Bikes, a not-for-profit that promotes everyday cycling in Canada. </span></em></p>As Canadian kids head back to school this week, many will be hungry. Lacking fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods, they will suffer mood problems, disease and low academic performance.Sara F.L. Kirk, Professor of Health Promotion, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/817872017-08-24T00:33:07Z2017-08-24T00:33:07ZWe should serve kids food in school, not shame<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183215/original/file-20170823-6615-lp4vam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All students deserve a healthy lunch when they go to school.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/serving-trays-delicious-food-closeup-concept-677113333?src=dBEX7Jg-7XGXmZG4vPw9Bw-3-58">Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past several years, reports have surfaced about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/well/family/lunch-shaming-children-parents-school-bills.html">the “shaming” of students</a> for outstanding school meal debts. These students, often from low-income families, are being publicly humiliated because they have unpaid debt in their school meal accounts.
Policies that shame students can include <a href="http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/06/gardendale_elementary_student.html">stamping</a> on children’s hands or arms, taking their food away and <a href="http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/sltrib/news/57468293-78/lunches-olsen-students-district.html.csp">dumping it</a> in the trash or giving them stigmatized <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/u-s-schools-rethink-lunch-shaming-policies-humiliate-children-meal-debts/">cold, partial meals</a> in lieu of the regular hot lunch. </p>
<p>As an <a href="https://education.uoregon.edu/users/sarah-stapleton">education researcher</a> who studies food in schools, I believe it’s our duty in schools to treat students with dignity and compassion. Moreover, access to food is a basic human need and should be considered a right – regardless of income. The best way to combat meal debt shame in U.S. public schools is to provide every student with free meals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183216/original/file-20170823-6641-1y70j66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In many schools, students with unpaid meal debts get turned away at the register.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Morgan Lee</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Addressing the problem</h2>
<p>Public outcry about school meal shaming has sparked the creation of at least <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/09/news/economy/school-lunch-shaming-debt-crisis/index.html">30 GoFundMe campaigns</a> organized by <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-07-11/battling-school-lunch-shaming-and-end-of-year-debts">parents</a> and <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/CRLUNCHDEBT">teachers</a> to pay remaining balances on student accounts. One school volunteer has even created a <a href="http://feedthefutureforward.com/">nonprofit</a> to help pay for kids’ meals.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?Chamber=S&LegType=B&LegNo=374&year=17">New Mexico</a>, <a href="http://sd18.senate.ca.gov/news/5312017-senate-approves-legislation-prevent-school-lunch-shaming">California</a> and <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/24/house-backs-giddings-amendment-food-shaming/">Texas</a> have begun crafting legislation to prohibit withholding food from students or to ban meal debt shaming altogether.</p>
<p>All of this has led to the USDA issuing a <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/unpaid-meal-charges-local-meal-charge-policies">memorandum</a> for school districts to clearly communicate their policies for meal fees to parents and guardians. However, the policy only suggests guidelines and provides no solid prohibitions against the shaming of students.</p>
<p>In a more extensive attempt to address the issue, the <a href="http://www.frac.org/research/resource-library/anti-lunch-shaming-act-2017">Anti-Lunch Shaming Act of 2017</a> has been introduced in the House and Senate by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. This bill would ban the shaming of students, prohibit the throwing away of food after it’s been served, and require districts to communicate directly with parents and guardians about school food debts.</p>
<h2>Schools’ ethical responsibility</h2>
<p>While these measures are steps in the right direction, addressing lunch shaming is treating a symptom rather than the underlying disease. All students need to eat every day, regardless of the funds available to them.</p>
<p>Given that we provide free schooling for all students in the country – regardless of family income – perhaps we should reexamine our societal norms around feeding them as well. Sociologist <a href="http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/sociology/faculty/janet-poppendieck">Janet Poppendieck</a> suggests in her 2010 book “<a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520269880">Free for All</a>” that we can and should provide free food to all students in our schools.</p>
<p>This move is not unprecedented: <a href="http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:544062/FULLTEXT01">Sweden</a>, <a href="http://www.elo-saatio.fi/finnish-free-school-meals">Finland</a> and Estonia provide <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20081211223110/http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/doc_item.asp?DocId=82&DocCatId=1">free food to all students</a> in public schools, regardless of income.
(<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/">Finland’s education system</a> is considered by many to be the best in the world, and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/11-best-school-systems-in-the-world-a7425391.html">Estonia</a> has been rated in the top 10.)</p>
<p>Why are we so reluctant to feed all students in the U.S.?</p>
<p>Prior to the 20th century, schools did not provide any kind of food for students: Students typically went home for lunch or brought their own food. This separation between eating and learning may have been a relic of the <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/descmind/">mind-body duality from Descartes</a>, which assumes that schools are for disembodied minds. In fact, school meals did not <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8640.html">begin</a> until the early 20th century Progressive Era, when charities, women’s groups and PTAs provided supplemental lunches to children in need. American schools began <a href="http://time.com/4496771/school-lunch-history/">offering meals</a> to students on a wide-scale basis as part of the New Deal program, partly (or perhaps mostly) to help <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8640.html">provide markets for agricultural surpluses</a>.</p>
<h2>The need</h2>
<p>Today there’s unprecedented need for students in the U.S. to be fed. For the first time in our history, the <a href="http://www.southerneducation.org/Our-Strategies/Research-and-Publications/New-Majority-Diverse-Majority-Report-Series/A-New-Majority-2015-Update-Low-Income-Students-Now">majority of students</a> in U.S. schools are living in poverty. Many of these students are food-insecure and dependent on the food provided in schools, sometimes as the <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/02/10/274899069/for-lower-income-students-snow-days-mean-hungry-tummies">only meals</a> they eat daily. </p>
<p>Over <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/NSLPFactSheet.pdf">31 million</a> students in the U.S. rely on free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program. Through the program, free meals are available to families who make <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/03/23/2016-06463/child-nutrition-programs-income-eligibility-guidelines">under US$31,500</a> for a household of four, while reduced-price lunches are available to families who make just below $45,000 for a family of four.</p>
<p>However, the income cutoffs for these programs don’t take into account the wide variation in cost of living across the country. Moreover, <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520269880">Poppendieck</a> has reflected that a family making just enough to be ineligible for free lunches may struggle as much as a family who qualifies.</p>
<p>The application for free/reduced lunches itself can be a barrier for students who might otherwise be eligible. Families may be worried about bringing attention to undocumented status through filling out an application, or they may simply be unclear about the process.</p>
<p>Families may also be ashamed to ask for help. For example, a teacher with whom I partnered in my <a href="https://d.lib.msu.edu/islandora/object/etd:3524">research</a> shared that though she experienced hunger as a child, her mother forbade her from accepting free meals at school. As a child, she didn’t understand why, but was nonetheless subject to her mother’s decisions.</p>
<p>In short, there are complicated nuances and challenges in understanding individual students’ food security. Shame is already a part of this picture. We shouldn’t be compounding it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183218/original/file-20170823-6628-jo5bps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children have a right to school lunches – regardless of their family’s income.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Toby Talbot</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Addressing the need</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/summer-food-service-program">Summer Food Service Program</a>, a partnership between the USDA, nonprofits and government agencies (including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/well/family/free-lunch-at-the-library.html?mcubz=1">libraries</a>), provides free meals for kids ages 2-18 during the summer months when public schools are not in session. In this program, all a child needs to do to be eligible for the food is to show up at the designated place and time. I believe that this model of providing free food to children and teens with no need for proof of eligibility should be used in our schools, too.</p>
<p>There have been some strides toward making free food for all students a reality. Thanks to the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/community-eligibility-provision">Community Eligibility Provision</a> of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, districts where at least 40 percent of students are served by benefit programs can choose to provide free food for all students. The federal government reimburses participating schools based on the percentages of students qualifying for benefit programs.</p>
<p>But this promising policy can lead to problems. For example, in the Portland, Oregon public schools, 12 schools <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2017/07/a_dozen_portland_schools_to_ax.html">lost their community eligibility status</a> over the summer of 2017 because their qualifying student percentages declined.</p>
<p>What’s more, while the Community Eligibility Provision serves broadly low-income areas, it doesn’t address the increasing and perplexing nature of <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/places-need">suburban poverty</a>, where children from low-income backgrounds may be overlooked because of the affluence around them.</p>
<p>It’s simply not enough to provide free meals to some students, or to all students in some schools. While providing free meals to all public school students would be costly, given that we provide textbooks, facilities, teachers, special education services and other essentials required for schooling, how can we continue to omit food as an educational essential? </p>
<p>Meal debt shaming is a serious problem, but student hunger is even more so. It’s time to move aggressively to make free food available to all students, in all U.S. public schools. It’s the least we can do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Riggs Stapleton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students with unpaid meal debts have been experiencing some shaming policies at school. New rules are aimed at protecting these children, but the real solution may lie in free meals for all.Sarah Riggs Stapleton, Assistant Professor, Education Studies, College of Education, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/338142014-11-07T11:04:49Z2014-11-07T11:04:49ZBrownbagging it not always the healthy choice for kids’ school lunches<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63804/original/63qt25th-1415234760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=915%2C0%2C3446%2C2909&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nutritious meal inside? Maybe, maybe not.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=25366735&src=lb-29877982">Lunchbox image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ravenous students, busy parents, nutrition professionals and school officials all have their own ideas about what belongs on the school lunch table. Plenty of criticism centers on the unhealthiness of notorious items like corn dogs, nachos, and fried foods that many schools dish up. But <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2014.07.007">our research</a> shows that what gets packed in a lunchbox from home can be just as unhealthy as what’s served on a tray at the cafeteria.</p>
<h2>School lunches are improving</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act">2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act</a> issued updated nutrition standards for the US <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/national-school-lunch-program-nslp">National School Lunch Program</a> (NSLP). The revamped standards require schools to:</p>
<ul>
<li>increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free and low-fat milk</li>
<li>reduce the level of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat</li>
<li>meet the nutrition needs of school children within their calorie requirements </li>
</ul>
<p>Over 90% of schools reported that they <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/pressrelease/2014/009814">successfully met</a> the revamped standards for the 2013-2014 school year, up from <a href="http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/ahaecc-public/@wcm/@adv/documents/downloadable/ucm_463491.pdf">just 14%</a> in 2009-2010. But even if schools are serving beautifully balanced, healthy meals, it’s an exercise in futility if kids aren’t eating them. </p>
<p>Some families are unhappy with the menu and taste changes of school meals and are considering joining the <a href="http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/%7E/media/publications/PDFs/SNDAvol1.pdf">40%</a> of children who already bring a packed lunch from home everyday. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63807/original/kvvjnwwf-1415235747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63807/original/kvvjnwwf-1415235747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63807/original/kvvjnwwf-1415235747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63807/original/kvvjnwwf-1415235747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63807/original/kvvjnwwf-1415235747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63807/original/kvvjnwwf-1415235747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63807/original/kvvjnwwf-1415235747.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lunchtime in the schoolyard could leave something to be desired, nutritionally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=138148454&src=lb-29877982">Kids image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s in those lunchboxes</h2>
<p>When we took at look at what came to school in all those brown bags, we found that packed lunches – which of course aren’t required to meet any nutrition standards – are generally less healthy than lunches provided at school. </p>
<p>We rifled through 1,300 school-provided and parent-packed lunches of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children in three Virginia schools. We compared them for nutrients and also for food items present. Packed lunches provided more calories, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sugar, vitamin C, and iron while providing less protein, sodium, fiber, vitamin A and calcium when compared to National School Lunch Program meals. Lunches from home also contained more desserts (61% vs 0%), snack items such as chips and crackers (57% vs 5%), and sugar-sweetened beverages (40% vs 0%), while providing fewer fruits (54% vs 67%), vegetables (17% vs 61%), and milk (20% vs 96%) when compared to school lunches. </p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212267214005516">recent study</a> found similar results. The researchers used digital photography to document the lunches and snacks of more than 600 Massachusetts third and fourth graders in 12 public schools. They compared packed lunches to National School Lunch Program standards and <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/cacfp/child-and-adult-care-food-program">Child and Adult Food Care Program</a> (CAFCP) standards. They found that only 27% of the packed lunches met at least three of the five NSLP standards, and only 4% of snacks met at least two of the four CAFCP standards.</p>
<p>We’re now interested in determining what motivates parents to pack a lunch for their child and what barriers there may be to participating in the National School Lunch Program. Why don’t families choose the provided meals despite being low-cost and even free for a large proportion of children? Researchers and health professionals need to consider strategies which will help parents meet the challenges of food and taste preferences, convenience, time, cost and nutrition. Since 40% of children are bringing a packed lunch from home to school every day, it is an emerging issue that cannot be ignored. </p>
<h2>How to get kids eating healthier foods</h2>
<p>Schools can encourage students to participate in the National School Lunch Program by offering <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00548.x/full">farm-to-school and school gardening</a> options, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S149940460600296X">taste tests of menu items, and involvement of parents</a> and children in the development of new menu items. </p>
<p>Parents can make changes to improve the nutrition of their child’s packed lunch by setting small goals such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>include a fresh fruit and vegetable every day</li>
<li>send water or milk for drinking instead of a sugar-sweetened drink</li>
<li>replace dessert with a healthier item such as fruit</li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63808/original/bmhg3fvd-1415235922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63808/original/bmhg3fvd-1415235922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63808/original/bmhg3fvd-1415235922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63808/original/bmhg3fvd-1415235922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63808/original/bmhg3fvd-1415235922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63808/original/bmhg3fvd-1415235922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63808/original/bmhg3fvd-1415235922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s so nutritious!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=138148454&src=lb-29877982">Girl image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Studies have shown that <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666304001448">involving children in the decision-making</a> around what to eat increases their likelihood to eat those foods. Parents can encourage their kids to eat healthy foods by involving them in packing decisions: giving children a choice about which fruits and vegetable to include, allowing them to select foods from the farmers market or grocery store, and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002822304017122">modeling</a> healthy eating at home.</p>
<p>Parents can also… be patient. It takes time for children to accept new foods – research shows up to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/26/4/546/">15 times</a>! – but <a href="http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v57/n2/abs/1601541a.html">exposing children to healthy foods</a> is critical for acceptance. Be patient, offer healthy foods, and be content with small bites. They will be forming healthy habits that last a lifetime!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alisha Farris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ravenous students, busy parents, nutrition professionals and school officials all have their own ideas about what belongs on the school lunch table. Plenty of criticism centers on the unhealthiness of…Alisha Farris, PhD Candidate in Behavioral & Community Nutrition, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.