Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice: What We've Learned after Implementation of the New School Meal Nutrition Standards

(Poverty and Income Policy)

Obesity has become a significant public health concern. Due to the negative, long-term implications of obesity during childhood, addressing obesity early in life is a significant public health opportunity. The school food environment may influence the dietary habits of children, and therefore, the risk of obesity. Children over the age of five spend around seven hours a day in school and eat one to two meals there. It is fitting that food policy would focus on the school as an intervention point. To this end, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 directed the USDA to develop new school meal nutrition standards. These standards, implemented in the 2012-2013 school year, reflect the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine’s 2009 report, School Meals: Building Blocks for Health Children. They are designed to lead to improvements in meal quality and nutrition-related child outcomes. Key components of the standards include increasing fruits and vegetables and whole grains offered, eliminating high-fat dairy products, and limiting calories, sodium, and saturated fat. Prior to the 2012-2013 school year, the school meal programs were designed to offer foods that met nutrition standards outlined in the School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children, passed by Congress in 1995. Literature examining the effect of school lunch programs under the old guidelines is inconsistent. Some research indicates that under the old guidelines, school lunch participation may have improved diet quality through higher consumption of nutrients and lower consumption of added sugar. Studies also suggest, however, that school lunch participation was associated with a higher intake of calories in the form of dietary fat, and increases in body mass index (BMI) and risk of obesity. Thus, the debate over the association between school lunch participation and obesity is contentious. This panel presentation will include four papers that discuss the implications of the new standards, strategies used by school food authority directors to successfully implement the standards, and early child nutrition-related outcomes. Lessons learned from implementation will help policymakers to prepare guidance for struggling school districts. Early child nutrition findings will highlight successes and challenges and suggest avenues for program improvement and additional research needed.