SCHOOL FOOD ENVIRONMENT
ENACT STRATEGY: Quality Meals
Improve the nutritional quality and appeal of school meals
The need for nutritious food for healthy growth and development is critical throughout the school years and schools can play a significant role in supporting healthy eating behaviors. Healthy nutrition is vital to learning and even moderate undernourishment can compromise cognitive development and school performance. Studies have shown that students who eat school breakfast can improve standardized test scores, while children who attend school hungry are less able to focus and less prepared to learn. As institutions dedicated to children’s education and well-being, schools should ensure that the foods served in the school lunch program and school breakfast program are both nutritionally balanced and appealing.
Food Research and Action Center released this Child Nutrition Fact Sheet summarizing recent scientific research on the link between children's nutrition and academic performance.
California Project LEAN's Bright Ideas
Bright Ideas is a web page designed to showcase successful or promising examples of schools and communities taking action on nutrition and physical activity by addressing policy and environmental change. Learn about successful strategies and programs that have made it easier for youth to eat healthy food and/or be physically active at school or in the community.
Improving School Meal Quality in California's Schools (PDF)
California Food Policy Advocates authored this best practices guide for a healthy school food services program, which highlights innovative approaches to increasing participation in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, by expanding healthy offerings, and supporting food service staff with policy and collaborations. A 2003 revised version is now available.
Education, Community Health Departments Lead Michigan Schools in Healthier Direction
Michigan awarded 47 schools with federally funded mini-grants from 1999-2004 to develop positive changes in their school health environments. The mini-grants were a result of an innovative school collaborative with the Michigan departments of Education (MDE) and Community Health (MDCH). This article details the success of mini-grant recipient schools in forming a coordinated school health team (CSHT), completing the Healthy School Action Tool (HSAT), and making healthy changes to their school environment.
Making it Happen! Success Story
Approach 3: Make More Healthful Foods and Beverages Available (PDF)
Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Making It Happen! describes six specific approaches for improving the nutritional quality of “competitive foods,” the foods and beverages schools offer other than the meals served through the USDA’s school meal programs. Success Story gives examples of states that have been successful making more healthy foods and beverages available. Approach 3 (PDF) describes how schools can add more nutrient-rich items to à la carte lines, vending machines, snack bars, and student stores to allow children to make more healthful choices.
The Healthy Food Policy Resource Guide is designed for use by school board members and school administrators who want to positively affect the health of students. Developed by California Project Lean in collaboration with the California School Boards Association, the guide offers a step-by-step approach for creating a healthy school environment so students can practice healthy eating habits while at school. It also includes model school nutrition policies for school boards.
Checking your Success was developed by Michigan Team Nutrition. The purpose of this set of evaluation tools is to measure the success of school nutrition programs by gathering feedback from parents and students. Suggestions and feedback can then be used to improve the appeal and quality of meals served in schools.
Changing the Scene: Improving the School Nutrition Environment, United States Department of Agriculture was developed by the USDA Food and Nutrition Services Division as a tool kit for people take action to improve their school's nutrition environment. The kit includes a variety of tools to raise awareness and address school environment issues that influence students' eating and physical activity practices.
Feed Me Better: Starting a Revolution in your School Dining Hall is a campaign developed by Jamie Oliver, chef and author, to make positive and healthy changes to the school dining programs and remove junk foods from schools in the United Kingdom. Feed Me Better packs contain recipes for school food service personnel and interactive lesson plans for teachers and students.
Food Research Action Center's Wellness Guide
Food Research and Action Center has published a new wellness guide which is a resource that addresses the special concerns of low-income students in local school wellness policies. The guide provides sample policies, model programs and key research information that are important tools to address the nutrition concerns of low-income children and communities in the development of school wellness policies. Click to see the full text on PDF.
Healthy School Food Policies: A Checklist (PDF)
The Center for Food and Justice developed this document that contains 65 policy ideas for improving school food, with legislative language for each idea drawn from policies that have been enacted or proposed at the state or school district levels.
San Francisco Unified School District Healthy School Nutrition and Physical Fitness Policy
Sets guidelines for beverages and foods sold on SFUSD campuses and in cafeterias to increase healthy menu choices, require the sale of fresh fruits and vegetables, and establish a preference for products grown, processed or packaged in California and for Certified Organic products.
Eureka City Unified School District Nutrition Policy
Establishes standards for vending machines and food and beverage sales during the school day and establishes a universal breakfast program for all K-5 students throughout the district.
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy
This comprehensive nutrition and physical activity policy ensures that students receive high quality, nutritious foods during mealtimes and classroom activities, nutrition education, and reinforces the Farmer’s Market Salad Bar program as a learning tool and mechanism for providing healthy food on a daily basis.
Berkeley Unified School District Food Policy
An integrated policy focused on healthy food in the cafeteria, school gardens, and nutrition education. The policy includes development of a plan by the food service director to eliminate potential harmful food additives and processes, such as bovine growth hormones, irradiation, hydrogenated oils, and known genetically modified foods.
The Los Angeles Unified School District Childhood Obesity Prevention Motion
This policy sets nutritional standards and portion sizes for foods sold to students in Los Angeles Unified schools. Lists approved and unapproved snack foods for students and outlines steps that the superintendent will take to promote a healthy food environment.
in the ENACT Local Policy Database
A Healthy School Meal Environment: Food Assistance Research Brief (PDF)
The Economic Research Service of the USDA discusses issues related to the National School Lunch Program, such as meal quality, acceptability, scheduling of meal times and plate waste in this 3-page briefing.
California Food Policy Advocates
Visit CFPA's website for background information on federal food programs such as Food Stamps, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, WIC, Summer Food Program, and After-School Snack Program and ways to advocate for state and federal level changes in this program to increase access to and quality of these programs for eligible program participants.
California Project LEAN works with state and local physical activity and nutrition leaders to conduct statewide programs such as the Food on the Run program, which trains teens on healthy eating and physical activity. Project LEAN also prepares leaders to serve as policy change agents and advocates in their schools and communities.
Multicomponent school intervention effective in preventing overweight children**
This study combined school self-assessment, nutrition policy, social marketing, nutrition education, and parent outreach strategies in five Philadelphia elementary schools. At the end of the 2 years, the schools with these interventions had half the obesity rate of control schools. News story also available here.
Foster, G. et al. A Policy-Based School Intervention to Prevent Overweight and Obesity. Pediatrics. 2008;121:e794-e802.
Nutrition, Physical Activity and Achievement
California Project Lean summarizes research that shows that "healthy, well-nourished children are more prepared to learn, more likely to attend school and class, and able to take advantage of education opportunities."
ADA, SNE, and ASFSA Joint Position Paper on Comprehensive School Nutrition
Click on Positions and Resolutions to access the American Dietetic Association, Society for Nutrition Education, and American School Food Service Association joint article on the need for comprehensive nutrition services in schools. The article includes a section on school food nutrition standards.
Nutritional improvements and student food choices in a school lunch program**
This study looks at the impact on student food choices after Hopkins School District dramatically revamped its school food program with a commitment to providing healthy and appealing food choices to students. This study analyzed data on students’ food purchases linked to their school records to examine factors affecting the healthiness of their food choices and the impacts of reforms to promote healthier eating in a high school lunch program.
Grainger, Corbett; Senauer, Benjamin; Runge, C. Ford. Nutritional improvements and student food choices in a school lunch program. Journal of Consumer Affairs. 2007 V.41, no.2, Winter 2007, pp.265-284., 2007.
Students will eat healthy options at school lunches when they are available**
This study show that school lunch sales do not go down when schools server healthier meals. It also shows that serving healthier meals in not more costly for the school system.
Wagner B, Senauer B, Runge CF. An Empirical Analysis of and Policy Recommendations to Improve the Nutritional Quality of School Meals. Review of Agricultural Economics. 2007 29 (4), 672–688.
Breakfast Eating and Weight Change in Adolescents**
This five year study found that adolescents who ate breakfast regularly ate a healthier diet, were more physically active, and had lower BMIs than those who skipped breakfast.
Timlin, M., Pereira, M., Story, M., Neumark-Sztainer, D. Breakfast Eating and Weight Change in a 5-Year Prospective Analysis of Adolescents: Project EAT. PEDIATRICS. 2008 March; 121(3): e638-e645.
**We can only provide links to the article abstracts and not the full text