Search Results (10)

States in the U.S. are newly implementing universal school meal (USM) policies, yet little is known about the facilitators of their success and the challenges they confront. This study evaluated the challenges and facilitators faced by school food authorities (SFAs) implementing California’s universal school meal (USM) policy during its inaugural year (2022–2023) using an online survey. In March 2023, 430 SFAs reported many benefits, including increased meal participation (64.2% of SFAs) and revenues (65.7%), reduced meal debt (41.8%) and stigma (30.9%), and improved meal quality (44.3%) and staff salaries (36.9%). Reported challenges include product/ingredient availability (80.9%), staffing shortages (77.0%), vendor/distributor logistics issues (75.9%), and administrative burden (74.9%). Top facilitators included state funding (78.2%) and increased federal reimbursement (77.2%). SFAs with fewer students eligible for free or reduced-price meals (as opposed to SFAs with more) reported greater increases in meal participation and reductions in stigma but also more administrative burdens. Larger SFAs reported greater increases in revenues, staff salaries, and improvements in meal quality than smaller SFAs but also more challenges. Overall, California’s USM policy has enhanced student access to healthy meals while mitigating social and financial barriers. Understanding California’s experience can inform other jurisdictions considering or implementing similar policies. Full article

The present systematic scope review intended to compile state-of-the-art information about the food environment around schools, exploring the main methods used to describe the food environment around schools as well as the possible effects that this environment can promote on the health of children and adolescents. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses—extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and guidelines were followed to ensure a robust and repeatable methodological process. A systematic search was performed in the following electronic databases: MEDLINE, Embase, Science Direct, Web of Science, LILACS, and Scopus, as well as in related articles, a manual search of reference lists and gray literature. Forty-six studies were selected. There was no standardization regarding distances from food establishments to schools, methods of analysis, and software used. The food environment around the schools was characterized by the wide availability of food establishments, especially fast food, convenience stores, supermarkets, and grocery stores known for offering a wide variety of unhealthy foods. Regarding the correlations with the health of children and adolescents, the evidence points to possible interferences of the food environment known as obesogenic, but it cannot be related only to the school environment since most of the acquisition and consumption of food usually happens around family homes. Conducting standardized and comprehensive studies evaluating food choices in the school environment and their interrelationships is very important to ensure children’s food and nutrition security and minimize negative health outcomes in the medium and long term. Full article

Universal school meals (USM) have the potential to increase access to healthy food for millions of U.S. students. This study evaluated school food authorities’ (SFA) perspectives of federal USM in response to COVID-19 (school year (SY) 2021–22) and California’s upcoming USM policy in the SY 2022–23. In February 2022, all SFAs in California (n = 1116) were invited to complete an online survey. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression examining differences by school demographic characteristics were used. Five hundred and eighty-one SFAs completed the survey; 63% of them first implemented USM during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reported benefits included increased student meal participation (79.2%) and reduced stigma (39.7%). Top challenges included staffing (76.9%) and meal packaging/solid waste (67.4%). Nearly all SFAs reported pandemic-related challenges procuring the necessary types (88.9%) and amounts of foods (85.9%), and non-food supplies/equipment (82.6%). Over 40% reported that federal reimbursements were insufficient to cover costs. SFAs with <40% FRPM-eligible students and/or higher student enrollment reported more current challenges and future concerns than those with ≥40% FRPMs and lower student enrollment. The top resources requested to implement CA’s USM included additional facilities/equipment (83.8%), communications/marketing (76.1%), increasing meal participation (71.5%), and financial management (61.5%). Most California SFAs reported that implementing federal USM had the intended effect of feeding more children. This study’s findings may be useful to the several other U.S. states implementing universal school meals in the SY 2022–23, and to other states or countries considering adopting a USM policy in the future. Full article

The COVID-19-related lockdowns led to school closures across the United States, cutting off critical resources for nutritious food. Foodservice employees emerged as frontline workers; understanding their experiences is critical to generate innovations for program operations and viability. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to characterize COVID-19-related foodservice adaptations for summer and school year meal provision. Public school district foodservice administrators across Ohio were surveyed in December 2020. Questions related to meal provision before, during, and after COVID-19-related school closures. Results indicate the majority of districts continued providing meals upon their closure in Spring 2020 (n = 182, 87.1%); fewer did so in Summer (n = 88, 42.1%) and Fall (n = 32, 15.3%). In Spring and Summer, most districts that offered meals functioned as ‘open sites’ (67.0% and 87.5%, respectively), not limiting food receipt to district-affiliated students. Most districts employed a pick-up system for food distribution (76–84% across seasons), though some used a combination of approaches or changed their approach within-season. Qualitatively, districts reported both “successes” (e.g., supporting students) and “challenges” (e.g., supply chain). Despite being ill-prepared, districts responded quickly and flexibly to demands of the pandemic. This analysis provides insight for future practice (e.g., establishing community partnerships) and policy (e.g., bolstering local food systems). Full article

Public schools in the U.S. generate about 14,500 tons of municipal solid waste daily, and approximately 42% of that is food packaging generated by school foodservice, contributing significantly to the global packaging waste crisis. This literature review summarizes methods used to evaluate food packaging waste in school foodservice. This review has two objectives: first, to understand which methodologies currently exist to evaluate food packaging waste generation and disposal in school foodservice; and second, to describe the creation of and share a practical standardized instrument to evaluate food packaging waste generation and disposal in school foodservice. A systematic review was conducted using the following search terms: solid waste, school, cafeteria and food packaging, waste, and school. The final review included 24 studies conducted in school environments (kindergarten through twelfth grade or college/university), 16 of which took place in the U.S. Food packaging waste evaluations included objective methods of waste audits, models, and secondary data as well as subjective methods of qualitative observations, questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups. Large variation exists in the settings, participants, designs, and methodologies for evaluating school foodservice packaging waste. Lack of standardization was observed even within each methodology (e.g., waste audit). A new instrument is proposed to support comprehensive and replicable data collection, to further the understanding of school foodservice food packaging waste in the U.S., and to reduce environmental harms. Full article

Research suggests that the dietary quality (DQ) of school lunches meeting the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) requirements may vary significantly. Possible drivers of variation include factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES) and rurality. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether there was variation in nutrient content and DQ by SES and rurality, when analyzing middle school lunch menus meeting NSLP requirements. A random sample of 45 Kansas middle school lunch menus each were obtained from websites of randomly selected districts from low- and high-SES strata. Thirty-day menus were analyzed for nutrient content. Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2015 scores were calculated for DQ. Rurality was determined for schools by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) locale. There were significant differences in added sugar (p < 0.001) and calcium (p = 0.001) favoring high-SES menus, and in sodium (p = 0.001) favoring low-SES menus. There were no nutrient differences by rurality. The HEI scores were not different by SES or rurality, with a mean score (SD) 61.9 (2.6) across all schools. Middle school lunch DQ in Kansas does not vary by SES or rurality. Efforts to improve DQ should focus on all foodservice operations, not specifically low-SES or rural schools. Full article

Community catering or to use another common term especially in the American literature institutional foodservice plays a central role in changing our food system towards sustainability. Community catering establishments can bring about changes in this context at various levels. Hence, in the context of menu planning, they have a direct influence on the level of meat consumption. Indirectly, however, they can also support changes in eating habits by offering the guest an equally attractive alternative, thus giving him or her a sense of how tasty a low-meat cuisine can be. On the basis of this experience, the consumer may possibly change in turn his or her own purchasing behavior and menu planning at home. With the increasing importance of catering for day-care centers and schools, community catering also has a considerable influence on the nutritional status as well as on the development of people’s individual diet and the later eating habits of young people. By understanding socio-technical systems as embedded in ecological systems this paper takes a systemic view on innovations in transformation domains as the objects of desire for governance towards sustainability. The framework developed in the context of the BMBF-funded research project “Governance model for socio-ecological transformation processes in practice: development and testing in three areas of application” known by its acronym TRAFO 3.0 was applied to examine innovative approaches and actors in community catering and their contributions to more sustainable food systems. A number of studies show that a very large environmental relief potential can be achieved by reducing the quantity of meat and other animal products offered. However, the concrete implementation of this goal is associated with a multitude of challenges, since meat-containing meals are an important part of German food culture. How the transformation towards meals with fewer animal products in German community catering can succeed is an important question in the context of the transformation to sustainable food systems. To answer this question, we analyzed the status quo of the socio-technical system of German community catering using a developed governance model. One of the central results was that community catering stakeholders who have successfully reduced their offer of animal products died fundamental changes in meal planning. Cooks had to “reinvent” meals completely to be successful. Full article

The purpose of this study was to select target nutrients to be included in the nutritional standards of school lunches in Korea. The dietary intake data for children and adolescents aged 6–17 years old from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VI were analyzed for eight groups based on gender and age (6–8, 9–11, 12–14, and 15–17 years old). First, the usual intake of 3091 subjects was estimated and assessed to identify nutrients with insufficient or excessive intake prevalence. Along with the nutrients identified by the assessment, the energy and nutrients prioritized in the meal planning procedure of the 2015 Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans were the initial candidates; these nutrients and energy include the percentages of energy from carbohydrates, protein, and fat; vitamin A; riboflavin; niacin; vitamin C; calcium; phosphorus; sodium; and iron. Phosphorus was excluded as a result of there being little evidence of clinical symptoms caused by its insufficient intake. Sodium was excluded because reliable data on added salt were not available among the school lunch recipes in Korea. Therefore, energy; the percentages of energy from carbohydrates, protein, and fat; vitamin A; riboflavin; niacin; vitamin C; calcium; and iron were selected to be included in the nutritional standards for school lunches in Korea. Full article

The purpose of this study was to analyze foodservice operation, dietary life education, and nutrition counseling tasks of nutrition teachers and dietitians in elementary, middle, and high schools in Jeju, Korea, and to provide effective ways to implement dietary life education and nutrition counseling in schools. This study surveyed 94 nutrition teachers and 46 dietitians working at elementary, middle, and high schools in Jeju during 7–14 May 2015. The importance and performance of 16 tasks of nutrition teachers and dietitians were measured using questionnaires. The data was analyzed by using the SPSS software and Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA). Importance was ranked in the order of foodservice operation (4.72), dietary life education (4.37), and nutrition counseling (4.24); and performance was ranked in the order of foodservice operation (4.48), dietary life education (3.70), and nutrition counseling (3.22). The importance–performance matrix showed that in Quadrant 4, the “Concentrate Here” item was “nutrition and dietary life education for students”, while in Quadrant 2, the “Possible Overkill” item was “cost control and office management”. These findings suggest that it is important to reduce unnecessary administrative and office management tasks in order for nutrition teachers and dietitians to implement effective nutrition education, dietary life education, and nutrition counseling programs. Full article

Modifying the school food environment is on the national agenda as one strategy to improve the nutritional quality of children’s diets. Because few environmental-level interventions have been rigorously evaluated, the evidence base to inform programs and policies is limited. Of concern is the impact that changes to cafeteria offerings will have on participation in school meal programs. This study evaluates school lunch participation in the setting of a year-long middle school cafeteria intervention by examining the association between body mass index (BMI), sociodemographics, and the purchases of school lunch meals. IMOVE meals were healthier choices that met stringent nutritional criteria and were offered alongside standard lunch meals. Students who were overweight had a significantly higher purchase rate for both types of meals compared to those with a healthy BMI. Non-white race, younger age, being male, and low-income status were also significantly associated with participation in school lunch. Results indicate that nutritionally vulnerable students participate in school lunch and are equally likely to buy healthy alternatives or standard meals. This behavioral observation has important implications for school foodservice programs and policies. These results are timely given recent federal legislation to improve the school food environment to influence students’ food choice behaviors. Full article