Improving Food Environments in Schools: Tracking Progress

Making positive changes in the types of foods available to children in schools has the potential to have a substantial impact on their dietary intakes and the prevalence of childhood obesity. Although federal regulation requires that school districts have policies about all foods offered on school campuses and many states have enacted their own policies, research on the implementation and impact of policies that target competitive foods is just beginning to emerge. Researchers working in this area should carefully examine the rigor of policies under study as well as implementation of the policies at the school level. The use of a common set of tools to measure policy rigor and the types of foods available would enhance this important area of research and should be encouraged.