Child Nutrition

EVIDENCE SUPPORTS NEED FOR QUALITY CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS

Many Schools Still Not Meeting Guidelines, Yet Meals Positively Impact Diet Quality

More than 28 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) providing 50 to 60 percent of their total daily energy intake.  USDA’s most recent study of the NSLP found that in school year 1998-99, fewer than 1/4 of the school lunch meals served met current fat and saturated fat standards (no more that 30 percent of calories from fat with less than 10 percent from saturated fat).  Schools were more successful at breakfast time, with 71 percent serving breakfasts that met the fat standard and 52 percent meeting saturated fat standards.  Despite these findings, relative to NSLP non-participants, NSLP participants consume greater amounts of essential vitamins and minerals, vegetables, milk and milk products, meat and meat substitutes and less soda and/or fruit juices and have overall a better quality diet.  (School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study-II: Summary of Findings. USDA, 2001.)

Breakfast Improves Academic Performance & Diet

Breakfast is essential to the nutritional health of children and has a pronounced effect on ensuring overall dietary quality and dietary adequacy of energy intake and essential vitamins and minerals.  Besides assuring optimal development and growth, positive effects on alertness, attention, performance on standardized achievement tests, and other skills important for academic success are enhanced. However, in an interim evaluation of the effects of a universal-free school breakfast on selected student outcome measures—dietary intake, cognitive and social/emotional functioning, academic achievement tests, school attendance, tardiness, classroom behavior and discipline, food security and health—the breakfast did not have a significant effect on any of these measured outcomes. (Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1993. Evaluation of the School Breakfast Pilot Program: Summary of findings from the first year of implementation. USDA, 2002).

Nutrition Education Leads to Changes in Knowledge and Choices

Combining nutrition education with school meal programs is a logical strategy for improving acceptance of nutritious meals both in and out of school.

  • The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) focused on nutrition education and school meal choices.  Children decreased their cholesterol, total fat, and saturated fat intakes and improved in nutrition knowledge, reported usual behavior, intentions, self-efficacy, and perceived social reinforcement for healthy food choices. (Preventive Medicine, 1996:25(4);465-477)
  • The National Cancer Institute’s 5-A-Day for Better Health Program funded several school-based nutrition education programs that resulted in significant increases in children’s intake of fruits and vegetables. (5-A-Day for Better Health Program. NIH publication 01-5019, 2001).
WIC Program

Numerous studies have examined WIC’s effects on program recipients’ diets and health.  General findings support the positive impacts of WIC on birth weight, related outcomes, and associated health costs (as assessed through Medicaid program costs). Studies also find that WIC to be important in improving children’s iron status, diet quality, and intakes of iron, folate, and Vitamin B-6. WIC participants had significantly lower intake of added sugars. It is not clear the extent to which these health and diet improvements are attributable to the provision of supplemental food alone versus the food and combination of nutrition education, health services, and social service referrals. Some WIC nutrition education programs have shown significant increases in nutrition knowledge. (Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Report (FANRR) No. 9, 2000; FANRR No. 5, 2000; FANRR No. 27, 2002).

Food Safety is also a concern

A recent report by the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) highlighted the need for “continued vigilance to ensure safety of school meals.”  The GAO concluded that of 20 large school outbreaks in 1998 and 1999, the majority of the outbreaks were caused by foods served through the school meal programs. (Continued Vigilance Needed to Ensure Safety of School Meals.  GAO-02-669T, 2002.).

Nutrition Policies and Practices are enhanced by Nutrition Professionals

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 1994 found that significantly more health-enhancing food preparation practices were employed in schools whose food service managers had food service certification or a nutrition-related college degree.  In 2000, only 6 percent of states required any special certification for a district-level food service director, and the most common minimum required level of education is a high school diploma or GED. (Journal of School Health, September 2001).