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School Meal Nutrition Standards Reduce Disparities Across Income and Race/Ethnicity
Travis A Smith1, Biing-Hwan Lin2, Joanne Guthrie2
1Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
|March 23, 2024
Summary
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) improved U.S. school meal nutrition standards. School meals positively impacted children's diet quality, especially for low-income and minority students, reducing disparities.
Area of Science:
- Nutrition Science
- Public Health Policy
- Childhood Nutrition
Background:
- U.S. children's diets often fall short of recommendations, leading to adverse health outcomes.
- The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010 mandated updated school meal nutrition standards aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs).
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate the evolving impact of school-prepared meals versus home-prepared meals on children's overall daily diet quality.
- To analyze changes in diet quality subcomponents and by subgroups (race/ethnicity, income).
Main Methods:
- Utilized two nonconsecutive days of dietary recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-March 2020).
- Calculated schoolchildren's Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2020 scores using individual-level fixed effects regression.
- Examined diet quality before and after HHFKA-mandated nutrition standard changes.
Main Results:
- Before 2009, school food had no impact on overall diet quality.
- From 2009-2012, school food positively associated with diet quality for low-income and non-Hispanic Black students.
- By 2013-2020, improvements in diet quality linked to school food were observed across all demographic groups, driven by better intake of dairy, fruits, whole grains, and reduced intake of refined grains, added sugars, and saturated fats.
Conclusions:
- HHFKA-mandated nutrition standards led to significant improvements in children's dietary intake.
- These updated standards helped reduce disparities in diet quality among diverse student populations.
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