school lunch thesis

How the quality of school lunch affects students’ academic performance

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, michael l. anderson , mla michael l. anderson associate professor of agricultural and resource economics - university of california, berkeley justin gallagher , and jg justin gallagher assistant professor of economics - case western reserve university elizabeth ramirez ritchie err elizabeth ramirez ritchie ph.d. graduate student - university of california-berkeley, department of agricultural and resource economics.

May 3, 2017

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The main goal of the law was to raise the minimum nutritional standards for public school lunches served as part of the National School Lunch Program. The policy discussion surrounding the new law centered on the underlying health reasons for offering more nutritious school lunches, in particular, concern over the number of children who are overweight. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in five children in the United States is obese.

Surprisingly, the debate over the new law involved very little discussion as to whether providing a more nutritious school lunch could improve student learning. A lengthy medical literature examines the link between diet and cognitive development, and diet and cognitive function. The medical literature focuses on the biological and chemical mechanisms regarding how specific nutrients and compounds are thought to affect physical development (e.g., sight), cognition (e.g., concentration, memory), and behavior (e.g., hyperactivity). Nevertheless, what is lacking in the medical literature is direct evidence on how nutrition impacts educational achievement.

We attempt to fill this gap in a new study that measures the effect of offering healthier public school lunches on end of year academic test scores for public school students in California. The study period covers five academic years (2008-2009 to 2012-2013) and includes all public schools in the state that report test scores (about 9,700 schools, mostly elementary and middle schools). Rather than focus on changes in national nutrition standards, we instead focus on school-specific differences in lunch quality over time. Specifically, we take advantage of the fact that schools can choose to contract with private companies of varying nutritional quality to prepare the school lunches. About 12 percent of California public schools contract with a private lunch company during our study period. School employees completely prepare the meals in-house for 88 percent of the schools.

To determine the quality of different private companies, nutritionists at the Nutrition Policy Institute analyzed the school lunch menus offered by each company. The nutritional quality of the menus was scored using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). The HEI is a continuous score ranging from zero to 100 that uses a well-established food component analysis to determine how well food offerings (or diets) match the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The HEI is the Department of Agriculture’s preferred measure of diet quality, and the agency uses it to “examine relationships between diet and health-related outcomes, and to assess the quality of food assistance packages, menus, and the US food supply.” The average HEI score for the U.S. population is 63.8, while the median HEI score in our study is 59.9. In other words, the typical private company providing public school lunch in CA is a bit less healthy than the average American diet.

We measure the relationship between having a lunch prepared by a standard (below median HEI) or healthy (above median HEI) company relative to in-house preparation by school staff. Our model estimates the effect of lunch quality on student achievement using year-to-year changes between in-house preparation of school meals and outside vendors of varying menu quality, within a given school . We control for grade, school, and year factors, as well as specific student and school characteristics including race, English learner, low family income, school budget, and student-to-teacher ratios.

We find that in years when a school contracts with a healthy lunch company, students at the school score better on end-of-year academic tests. On average, student test scores are 0.03 to 0.04 standard deviations higher (about 4 percentile points). Not only that, the test score increases are about 40 percent larger for students who qualify for reduced-price or free school lunches. These students are also the ones who are most likely to eat the school lunches.

Moreover, we find no evidence that contracting with a private company to provide healthier meals changes the number of school lunches sold. This is important for two reasons. First, it reinforces our conclusion that the test score improvements we measure are being driven by differences in food quality, and not food quantity. A number of recent studies have shown that providing (potentially) hungry kids with greater access to food through the National School Lunch Program can lead to improved test scores. We are among the very few studies to focus on quality, rather than food quantity (i.e., calories). Second, some critics of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act worried that by raising the nutritional standards of school lunches that fewer children would eat the food, thereby unintentionally harming the students that the law was designed to help. Our results provide some reassurance that this is not likely to be the case.

Finally, we also examine whether healthier school lunches lead to a reduction in the number of overweight students. We follow previous literature and use whether a student’s body composition (i.e. body fat) is measured to be outside the healthy zone on the Presidential Fitness Test . We find no evidence that having a healthier school lunch reduces the number of overweight students. There are a few possible interpretations of this finding, including that a longer time period may be necessary to observe improvements in health, the measure of overweight is too imprecise, or that students are eating the same amount of calories due to National School Lunch Program calorie meal targets.

Education researchers have emphasized the need and opportunity for cost-effective education policies . While the test score improvements are modest in size, providing healthier school lunches is potentially a very cost-effective way for a school to improve student learning. Using actual meal contract bid information we estimate that it costs approximately an additional $80 per student per year to contract with one of the healthy school lunch providers relative to preparing the meals completely in-house.

While this may seem expensive at first, compare the cost-effectiveness of our estimated test score changes with other policies. A common benchmark is the Tennessee Star experiment , which found a large reduction in the class size of grades K-3 by one-third correlated with a 0.22 standard deviation test score increase. This reduction cost over $2,000 when the study was published in 1999, and would be even more today. It is (rightfully) expensive to hire more teachers, but scaling this benefit-cost ratio to achieve a bump in student learning gains equal to our estimates, we find class-size increases would be at least five times more expensive than healthier lunches.

Thus, increasing the nutritional quality of school meals appears to be a promising, cost-effective way to improve student learning. The value of providing healthier public school lunches is true even without accounting for the potential short- and long-term health benefits, such as a reduction in childhood obesity and the development of healthier lifelong eating habits. Our results cast doubt on the wisdom of the recently announced proposal by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to roll back some of the school lunch health requirements implemented as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

Related Content

Krista Ruffini

February 11, 2021

Lauren Bauer, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

April 29, 2016

Michele Leardo

August 29, 2016

Education Access & Equity K-12 Education

Governance Studies

Brown Center on Education Policy

Annelies Goger, Katherine Caves, Hollis Salway

May 16, 2024

Sofoklis Goulas, Isabelle Pula

Melissa Kay Diliberti, Elizabeth D. Steiner, Ashley Woo

• Submit       Member Login

Access provided by

Login to your account

If you don't remember your password, you can reset it by entering your email address and clicking the Reset Password button. You will then receive an email that contains a secure link for resetting your password

If the address matches a valid account an email will be sent to __email__ with instructions for resetting your password

Download started.

• Academic & Personal: 24 hour online access
• Corporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online access
• Add To Online Library Powered By Mendeley
• Add To My Reading List
• Export Citation
• Create Citation Alert

Student Perception of Healthfulness, School Lunch Healthfulness, and Participation in School Lunch: The Healthy Communities Study

• Marisa Tsai, MPH, MS Marisa Tsai Correspondence Address for correspondence: Marisa Tsai, MPH, MS, Nutrition Policy Institute, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, 2115 Milvia St, Ste 301, Berkeley, CA 94704 Contact Affiliations Nutrition Policy Institute, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley, CA Search for articles by this author
• Lorrene D. Ritchie, PhD, RD Lorrene D. Ritchie Affiliations Nutrition Policy Institute, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley, CA Search for articles by this author
• Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, PhD, RD Punam Ohri-Vachaspati Affiliations School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ Search for articles by this author
• Lauren E. Au, PhD, RD Lauren E. Au Affiliations Nutrition Policy Institute, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley, CA Search for articles by this author

Conclusions and Implications

• nutrition policy
• school lunch participation
• school meals

Purchase one-time access:

Sneb member login.

US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. National School Lunch Program: participation and lunches served. https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/pd/slsummar.pdf . Accessed November 15, 2018.

• Google Scholar
• Crawford PB
• Scopus (49)
• Full Text PDF
• Robinson-O'Brien R
• Burgess-Champoux T
• Neumark-Sztainer D
• Scopus (53)
• Institute of Medicine

US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. Nutritional standards in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act . Accessed June 26, 2018.

US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. 7th edition. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office; 2010. https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/dietary_guidelines_for_americans/PolicyDoc.pdf . Accessed February 1, 2019.

US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. Child nutrition programs: flexibilities for milk, whole grains, and sodium requirements. https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/fr-113017 . Accessed June 26, 2018.

• Podrabsky M
• Scopus (94)
• Ohri-Vachaspati P
• Scopus (32)
• Scopus (26)
• Schwartz MB
• Scopus (20)
• Scopus (24)
• Frongillo EA
• Scopus (33)
• Gregoriou M
• Scopus (31)
• Scopus (70)
• Scopus (201)
• Woodward-Lopez G
• Scopus (28)

US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. School Nutrition Dietary Assessment (SNDA) Study III, Pre-Visit Questionnaire and Menu Survey: reimbursable meals form. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/SNDAIIIOMB.pdf . Accessed July 9, 2018.

US Department of Agriculture. Tools for schools. https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/tools-schools . Accessed August 17, 2018.

van Buuren S, Groothuis-Oudshoorn K. MICE: Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations in R. J Stat Soft . 2011;45:1-67.

• Bailey-Davis L
• Wojtanowski A
• Vander Veur SS
• Scopus (46)
• Scopus (41)

Article info

Publication history.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.

Identification

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2019.01.014

ScienceDirect

Related articles.

• Download Hi-res image
• Download .PPT
• Access for Developing Countries
• Articles & Issues
• Articles In Press
• Current Issue
• List of Issues
• Supplements
• For Authors
• Author Guidelines
• Submit Your Manuscript
• Statistical Methods
• Guidelines for Authors of Educational Material Reviews
• Permission to Reuse
• About Open Access
• Researcher Academy
• For Reviewers
• General Guidelines
• Methods Paper Guidelines
• Qualitative Guidelines
• Quantitative Guidelines
• Questionnaire Methods Guidelines
• Statistical Methods Guidelines
• Systematic Review Guidelines
• Perspective Guidelines
• GEM Reviewing Guidelines
• Journal Info
• About the Journal
• Disclosures
• Abstracting/Indexing
• Impact/Metrics
• Contact Information
• Editorial Staff and Board
• Info for Advertisers
• Member Access Instructions
• New Content Alerts
• Sponsored Supplements
• Statistical Reviewers
• Reviewer Appreciation
• New Resources
• New Resources for Nutrition Educators
• Submit New Resources for Review
• Guidelines for Writing Reviews of New Resources for Nutrition Educators
• Podcast/Webinars
• New Resources Podcasts
• Press Release & Other Podcasts
• Collections
• Society News

The content on this site is intended for healthcare professionals.

• Privacy Policy   
• Terms and Conditions   
• Accessibility   
• Help & Contact

Session Timeout (2:00)

Your session will expire shortly. If you are still working, click the ‘Keep Me Logged In’ button below. If you do not respond within the next minute, you will be automatically logged out.

Downloadable Content

Are students receiving the nutrients they deserve from free school lunches?

• Masters Thesis
• Campbell, Deirdre
• Debonis, Judith
• Bartle, Eli
• Ashley, Wendy
• Social Work
• California State University, Northridge
• food insecurity
• childhood obesity
• Dissertations, Academic -- CSUN -- Social Work.
• childhood diets
• school lunch program
• food and nutrition
• Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act
• http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/223035
• by Deirdre Campbell

Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Personal Health

Feeding Young Minds: The Importance of School Lunches

By Jane E. Brody

• June 5, 2017

Harding Senior High, a public school in St. Paul, Minn., has long been known as a 90-90-90 school: 90 percent of students are minorities, nearly 90 percent come from poor or struggling families and, until recently, 90 percent graduate (now about 80 percent) to go on to college or a career.

Impressive statistics, to be sure. But perhaps most amazing about this school is that it recognizes and acts on the critical contribution that adequate food and good nutrition make to academic success. Accordingly, it provides three balanced meals a day to all its students, some of whom might otherwise have little else to eat on school days.

For those who can’t get to school in time for early breakfast, a substitute meal is offered after first period, to be eaten during the second period. Every student can pick up dinner at the end of the school day, and those who play sports after school can take the dinner with them to practices and games.

To Jennifer Funkhauser, a French teacher at Harding and a hands-on participant in the meal program, making sure the students are well fed is paramount to their ability to succeed academically. Ms. Funkhauser and the staff at Harding are well aware of the many studies showing that children who are hungry or malnourished have a hard time learning.

After she noticed that some youngsters were uncomfortable eating with hundreds of others in a large, noisy lunchroom, Ms. Funkhauser created a more private, quieter “lunch bunch” option for them.

The attitude and atmosphere at Harding are in stark contrast to the humiliating lunchroom experiences suffered by students at some schools, where youngsters are sometimes shamed in front of their classmates and their meals confiscated and dumped in the garbage when parents have an unpaid lunch bill.

A recent article in The New York Times pointed out this appalling practice . My Jewish friends and I called it “a shanda,” which is Yiddish for a scandal, a disgrace, an embarrassment.

But current problems with school lunch go far beyond shaming innocent children. After major improvements championed by the Obama administration in the nutritional value of school meals were already underway, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives and now the Trump administration have begun to undermine them.

In 2010, spurred by the advocacy of Michelle Obama, Congress enacted the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, revamping the nation’s school lunch program to increase servings of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, provide age-appropriate calories, remove dangerous trans fats and limit levels of sodium. Schools were given incentives in the form of meal reimbursement funds to prompt them to participate.

Alas, in the fiscal-year 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill, the House included waivers allowing schools that had a six-month net loss of revenue for any reason to opt out of providing the healthier meals outlined in the 2010 act, Dr. Jennifer Woo Baidal, a pediatrician affiliated with Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine .

Now, just days into his tenure as Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, former governor of Georgia, rolled back the timetable by at least three years for reducing the high levels of salt in school lunches. The rollback will also allow schools to serve refined grains and 1-percent-fat flavored milk, instead of nonfat. Will progress on vegetables and fruits, calories and other fats be next on the chopping block?

Providing adequate amounts of nutritious food in schools is more important than many realize. “Students who eat regular, healthy meals are less likely to be tired, are more attentive in class, and retain more information,” Sean Patrick Corcoran, associate professor of economics and education policy at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, told The Atlantic .

In fact, well-designed studies have demonstrated that “students at schools that contract with a healthy school lunch vendor score higher” on statewide achievement tests, Michael L. Anderson of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues reported in April. They showed a 4-percentile improvement in test scores above those achieved in schools with less healthy meals.

“While this effect is modest in magnitude, the relatively low cost of healthy vendors when compared to in-house meal preparation makes this a very cost-effective way to raise test scores,” the researchers concluded.

In Minnesota, where 10 percent of households are considered “food insecure” and one child in six risks hunger, Wilder Research reported in 2014 that improved school nutrition is a “major component of Minnesota’s Statewide Health Improvement Program.” The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, in St. Paul, described studies showing that simply providing free breakfast can result in better school attendance, improved behavior and concentration and better academic performance.

Clearly, an expansive food program at schools like Harding Senior High bears replication nationwide, not cutbacks.

“Nutrition can affect learning through three channels: physical development (e.g., sight), cognition (e.g., concentration, memory), and behavior (e.g., hyperactivity),” the Berkeley team wrote. For example, they explained, diets high in trans and saturated fats have a negative impact on learning and memory, reducing substances in the body that support cognitive processing and increasing the risk of neurological dysfunction.

Schools have complained that children don’t like the healthier meals and are more likely to throw the food away. However, an analysis of three large studies by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that under the improved nutrition rules, food waste actually declined in 12 Connecticut schools; children consumed more fruits and vegetables in eight elementary schools in southeast Texas; and in four elementary schools studied by the Harvard School of Public Health, children ate more of their entree and vegetable servings and more children took a serving of fruit.

A study conducted by Cornell University researchers at a New York high school in 2012 found that making healthier foods more convenient for students increased their sale by 18 percent and decreased the grams of unhealthy foods consumed by nearly 28 percent.

An earlier Cornell study found that simply moving the salad bar from a corner of the lunchroom to the center increased the sales and consumption of this healthier fare. Offering students a choice between two vegetable options and having them pay cash for unhealthy items like desserts and soft drinks, the findings suggested, may enhance consumption of healthier foods without reducing revenue or participation in school lunch programs. While the studies are not conclusive, they suggest that with a few simple steps, schools may have an impact on the foods students eat.

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Nursing — Importance Of School Lunches

Importance of School Lunches

• Categories: Nursing

About this sample

Words: 568 |

Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 568 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

In conclusion, the significance of school lunches extends far beyond simply providing sustenance. These meals are essential for promoting student health, academic performance, and overall well-being. By acknowledging their importance and prioritizing their quality, we can create a positive and nurturing environment for students to thrive. As such, school lunches should be regarded as a fundamental aspect of the educational experience, deserving of our attention and investment.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Heisenberg

Verified writer

• Expert in: Nursing & Health

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 872 words

1 pages / 599 words

3 pages / 1496 words

4 pages / 2141 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Nursing

When driving around Miami, FL there are a copious number of billboards that I see advertising for people to become nurses throughout the city. When doing research, I’ve only come across a couple of news articles, advertising on [...]

Smith, J. (2021). The Essence of Nursing: Compassionate Care and Patient Well-being. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 11(5), 26-31.Johnson, M., & Higgins, I. (2018). Nursing Care: A Compassionate Approach. Elsevier [...]

Clinical learning experiences hold a paramount role in nursing education, serving as a bridge between theoretical knowledge and practical application. This essay explores the essential role of clinical placements in developing [...]

Gagnon, K., & Sabus, C. (2015). Professionalism in a Digital Age: Opportunities and Considerations for Using Social Media in Health Care. Physical Therapy, 95(3), 406–414.Nayak, S. G. (2018). Time Management in Nursing -- Hour [...]

Postpartum hemorrhage is a significant risk in the postpartum period, requiring prompt recognition, assessment, prevention, and management. Nursing care plays a pivotal role in ensuring the well-being of women experiencing [...]

Nursing is a profession that is often defined by its practical duties and responsibilities - from administering medication to providing emotional support to patients. However, my personal definition of nursing goes beyond these [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Alena Cakes

ALENA CAKES, Lytkarino - Restaurant Reviews, Photos & Phone Number - Tripadvisor