Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

With the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the federal government set new rules designed to curb childhood obesity and ensure every child has access to healthy school meals. One requirement was that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) update its nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) to better reflect the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, while satisfying children’s nutrient requirements. Despite widespread initial support for healthier school meals, the new standards have raised concerns. Some stakeholders have criticized the new benchmarks for calories, sodium, and whole grains as well as the requirement that children must select at least one fruit or vegetable in order for schools to receive federal reimbursement for the meal. These stakeholders say that schools are struggling to apply the new nutrition standards for various reasons, including higher food costs, lower student participation, and more food waste. A handful of small studies have examined the impact of the updated nutrition standards on children’s acceptance of school meals, their fruit and vegetable consumption, and food waste. However, there are currently no methodologically robust studies based on national samples to inform the current debate on the school nutrition standards.

To help address this gap, we conducted an analysis of school lunch data to shed light on the question of how much do school lunches need to change in order to meet several of the new nutrition standards. The analysis used school lunch data from USDA’s fourth School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-IV), which were collected in school year (SY) 2009-2010 before the new standards were in place.  We estimated (1) the average calorie, sodium, whole grain, and fruit and vegetable content of lunches in SY 2009-2010, and (2) the proportions and distributions of schools that met the new standards for calories, the three sodium targets, and the 50 percent and 100 percent requirements for whole grains.  

The results indicate that most schools needed to reduce the sodium content of their lunches to meet the initial target for sodium; however, many school were already at or close to this benchmark in SY 2009-2010. In addition, most lunches served to students already included at least one serving of fruit or vegetables. Findings for calories were mixed and varied by school level. For many schools, lunches served to students would not have satisfied both the minimum and maximum calorie requirements. Virtually no schools served lunches that came close to meeting the whole grain requirement, suggesting that this standard will be more challenging for schools to meet.