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Differential improvements in student fruit and vegetable selection and consumption in response to the new National School Lunch Program regulations: A pilot study

The National School Lunch Program serves lunch to more than 30 million school students, and breakfast to more than 13 million students daily. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act came into existence in 2010, allowing the USDA to improve the school lunch/breakfast program, by setting new guidelines and regulations. The amount of fruit and vegetables in the new guidelines was: at least two servings of vegetables and one serving fruit per lunch. I addition, it specifies the type/color of vegetable or other food items to be served weekly/daily (eg. dark green, red, starchy, legume).  

In 2011, Cullen, Chen, Dave & Jensen, hypothesized that the new guidelines will result in increase selection and consumption of fruit and vegetables by students. A total of twenty-six elementary schools and ten intermediate schools were divided into intervention and control group, where the intervention group applied the new USDA guidelines and the control group did not do changes to their menu. By analyzing the meal intake of total 37,000 students, it was found that applying the new guidelines was significantly associated with increase fruit and vegetable selection especially dark green, legume, starchy vegetables, and fruit juice. Also, there was significant decrease in calorie intake in intervention group when compared to the control group.

Studies conducted between 2000 and 2014 revealed a significant compliance of schools in applying nutritional standards, which in turn is expected to have positive impact on children’s health. The health benefits of the school lunch program were reported in the National Survey of School Meal Program, and it was found that there was an increase in salad bars, pre-packed salad, locally sourced fruits and vegetables in school lunches.

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Reference:
Cullen, K. W., Chen, T. A., Dave, J. M., & Jensen, H. (2015). Differential improvements in student fruit and vegetable selection and consumption in response to the new National School Lunch Program regulations: A pilot study. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(5), 743-750.

Merlo, C., Brener, N., Kann, L., Mcmanus, T., Harris, D., & Mugavero, K. (2015). School level practices to increase availability of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and reduce sodium in school meals — United States, 2000, 2006, and 2014. CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 905-908.


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