What's For Lunch? Determinants of the NSLP Menu

Year of publication:	2013
Authors:	Peckham, Janet G.
Institutions:	Agricultural and Applied Economics Association - AAEA
Subject:	The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) was established in 1946 and has become one of the largest nutrition-assistance programs in the United States with over eighty percent of all primary and secondary schools participating. Partly in an effort to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity \| new guidelines effective beginning in the 2012/13 school year require more healthful foods (fruits \| vegetables \| and whole grains) made available to students while reducing the levels of sodium and saturated fats and controlling calorie levels. Thus \| NSLP administrators now face challenges of addressing both potential nutrient deficiencies and over-consumption. While the NSLP is a federally mandated program \| it is up to each school district to determine how the new guidelines will be met. This paper examines the determinants of the menu offerings of the NSLP \| highlighting variability in menu composition (e.g. \| number of fruits \| and entrees served weekly) across income levels. I create a new dataset of 149 current school lunch menus collected from school websites. To analyze what types of schools may be more likely to serve more healthful foods as part of a school lunch \| these data are combined with school- and district-level data from the Common Core Data (CCD) \| county-level income and educational attainment data from the American Community Survey (ACS) \| and state-level data from School Health Policies and Programs (SHPPS). I find weak evidence that school districts with median household income above $50 \| 000 offer more entrees \| fruits \| and vegetables than their lower-income counterparts. This information will help a growing field of economic studies examining the relationship between participation in the NSLP and childhood obesity. \| Consumer/Household Economics \| Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety \| Public Economics

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Extent:	application/pdf
Series:	2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C..
Type of publication:	Book / Working Paper
Notes:	The text is part of a series 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. Number 150400
Source:	RePEc - Research Papers in Economics

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