Panel Paper: Fruit and Vegetable Consumption By School Lunch Participants: Implications for the Success of New Nutrition Standards

Saturday, November 8, 2014 : 9:10 AM
Enchantment Ballroom F (Hyatt)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Constance Newman, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Following the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, USDA instituted many changes to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). School lunches have had to meet new nutrition standards since the fall of 2012. Using data collected as part of the 2005 School Nutrition and Dietary Assessment III, this report examines whether students who attended schools serving more fruits and vegetables, in amounts that would meet the new standards, actually ate more of them than students at schools that did not. Student consumption data were matched by date to lunch menu records for the same day. Tobit models were used to estimate consumption of fruits and vegetables in school lunches by NSLP participants, controlling for other characteristics of students and school food operations. Students in schools that offered more fruits and vegetables and in quantities that met daily standards consumed greater quantities of many of those foods. But most students did not eat any of the offered fruits and vegetables in 2005, suggesting that addi­tional methods may need to be considered in order to meet nutritional goals.

Full Paper: