School Lunch & Nutrition: Are your kids eating healthily at school?

Increased rates of obesity and diabetes among young children have heightened parents' concerns about the quality of food available to their children through school breakfast and lunch programs. Parents have also expressed concerns about snack foods sold in vending machines, and candies and other "junk foods" sold as fund-raisers. A number of school communities are exploring how they can strengthen school policies related to breakfast, lunch and snacks on campus.

Here are some questions and activities that can get you started in assessing nutrition programs and policies at your school:

[Download free checklist -- PDF format]

Questions to ask your principal or school board member:

• Who makes decisions about "what's for lunch"?
• Who makes decisions about school policy on vending machines, and snacks and sodas in the cafeteria or student store?
• Who makes decisions about what foods can be sold as part of student activity fund-raisers?
• How can parents participate in the policy-making process?
• Does the school or school district post its lunch menus for the week and do the menus provide information about nutrition facts?

Questions to ask your child:

• What do the kids bring for lunch from home? What do they purchase from the cafeteria or snack stand?
• How do they rate the food? What do the wish they had more of?

Resources

Sample Local School Board Policies
Portland, Oregon: Food Sales in Schools.
This policy says, in part, "Since the Board believes that all nutrition is important for high academic achievement, all food service operations, including vending machines, student stores, school marketing classes, and fundraisers should offer food choices that provide the opportunity for students to select products that reflect the nutrition principals taught in the health curriculum."
www.pps.k12.or.us/directives-c/pol-reg/3/
Click on #3.60.030-P Food Sales in Schools

Salt Lake City, Utah. Child Nutrition and Vending Machines.
This policy differentiates between high school and middle school policies. At the high school level, a school may receive $12,000 a year from the Child Nutrition Department if that Department is responsible for the vending machines and receives all proceeds.
www.slc.k12.ut.us/board/policies/suppserv/AP-EFC.pdf

Los Angeles Unified School District. Child Nutrition and Soda.
Information regarding the implementation of new soda policies and additional efforts being planned.
www.nojunkfood.org

New York City Public School System. Child Nutrition and Vending Machines.
Information regarding the implementation of new vending machine policies.
www.opt-osfns.org/osfns/

Other local school board policies are accessible through the school health database of the National School Board Association.
www.nsba.org/schoolhealth/database.htm

For information on State Board of Education Policies
James Bogden, State Policies on the Sale of Food and Beverages in School. State Education Standards. A quarterly journal of the National Association of State Boards of Education. 2001.
www.nasbe.org/Standard/5_Spring2001/StateInnov.pdf

National Association of State Boards of Education.
Sample Policies to Encourage Healthy Eating. In Fit, Healthy and Ready to Learn.
www.nasbe.org/HealthySchools/healthy_eating.html

Additional Resources
California Project LEAN: A Program of the CA Department of Health Services and the Public Health Institute. Taking the Fizz Out of Soda Contracts: A Guide to Community Action.
www.phi.org/pdf-library/sodareport.pdf

Centers for Disease Control.
Guidelines to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eatings.
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00042446.htm

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.
Childhood Obesity: What the Research Tells Us
www.healthinschools.org/News Room/Fact Sheets/ChildhoodObesity.aspx

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.
Parents' Resource Center. Nutrition and Food Safety.
www.healthinschools.org/Educators-and-Families/Parents/Learn-Now/Nutrition-and-Food-Safety.aspx

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Making It Happen: School Nutrition Success Stories.
www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/nutrition/Making-It-Happen/

Woldow D and Grannan C.
Healthy Food: Healthy Kids.
Paper posted on the Parents Advocating School Accountability web site. An advocate's guide to changing food provided at school.
Go to http://pasaorg.tripod.com/ and click on "Learn how to get rid of junk food in your child's school."