Making school lunchroomssmarter
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/10/22/making.school.lunchrooms.smarter
Don't ban it, move it. This is one conclusion of a new Cornell University study. In one set of schools, sales of fruit increased by 100% when it was moved to a colorful bowl. Salad bar sales tripled when the cart was placed in front of cash registers. These findings underscore the easiest way to lunchroom choices is to make an apple more convenient, cool, and visible than a cookie. The conclusion of six different studies with over 11,000 middle and high school studies show that psychology and economics might be better outlawing tasty food.
We're focusing on giving Food Service Directors "low-cost/no cost" changes they can make immediately, said Brian Wansink, Co-Director of the Cornell Center of Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs (BEN). During his research presentation, he described other studies which showed:
· Decreasing the size of bowls from 18 ounces to 14 ounces reduced the size of the average cereal serving at breakfast by 24 percent.
· Creating a speedy "healthy express" checkout line for students not buying calorie-dense foods like desserts and chips, doubled the sales of healthy sandwiches.
· Moving the chocolate milk behind the plain milk led students to buy more plain milk.
· Keeping ice cream in a freezer with a closed opaque top significantly reduced the amount of ice cream taken.
· When cafeteria workers asked each child, "Do you want a salad?" salad sales increased by a third.
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The School Meal Program Participation and Childhood Obesity report used data from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment III Study to examine dietary patterns of school meal program participants and nonparticipants and the relationship between school meal participation and Body Mass Index (BMI). The study found that children who participate in school breakfast programs had significantly lower BMI than children who did not participate in the program. (July 2009)
http://fyi.uwex.edu/wischoolbreakfast/files/2009/10/School-Meal-Program-Participation-and-Childhood-Obesity.pdf
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USDA-backed study finds federal school lunches linked to childhoodobesity
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/08/24/usda.backed.study.finds.federal.school.lunches.linked.childhood.obesity
New research funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture finds that children who eat school lunches that are part of the federal government's National School Lunch Program are more likely to become overweight.
The same research study found, however, that children who eat both the breakfast and lunch sponsored by the federal government are less heavy than children who don't participate in either, and than children who eat only the lunch, says economist Daniel L. Millimet at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Millimet authored the study with economists Rusty Tchernis, Georgia State University, and Muna S. Hussain, Kuwait University. For a link to the journal article and to more information see http://tinyurl.com/2874wqn.
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Schools, communities share responsibility for childnutrition
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/08/09/schools.communities.share.responsibility.child.nutrition
The American Dietetic Association has published an updated position paper on local support for nutrition integrity in schools that calls on schools and communities to work together to provide healthful and affordable meals for all children and to promote educational environments that help students learn and practice healthy behaviors for their entire lives. ADA's updated position paper, published in the August 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, represents the Association's official stance on this health issue:
It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that schools and communities have a shared responsibility to provide students with access to high-quality, affordable, nutritious foods and beverages. School-based nutrition services, including the provision of meals through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, are an integral part of the total education program. Strong wellness policies promote environments that enhance nutrition integrity and help students to develop lifelong healthy behaviors.
In its updated position paper, ADA emphasizes:
· School-based nutrition services, including the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program are an integral part of the total education program.
· Schools and communities have a shared responsibility to provide students with access to high-quality, affordable, nutritious foods and beverages.
· The Dietary Guidelines for Americans should apply to all foods and beverages sold or served to students during the school day.
· Strong local wellness policies promote healthy school environments and nutrition integrity.
· Daily access to healthful foods through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program will help provide adequate nourishment and may positively influence the development of healthful eating habits.
· More students need to participate in the School Breakfast Program. Eating breakfast has been shown to improve students' overall diets and may improve cognitive function, memory, test grades and school attendance rates.
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Australian study: School kids 'wagging' breakfast are missing healthy brainfuel
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/03/23/school.kids.wagging.breakfast.are.missing.healthy.brain.fuel
The national MBF Healthwatch survey has revealed that a disturbing number of children 'wag' breakfast claiming there is 'no time' to eat, they are 'too tired' or 'can't be bothered' having a meal before going to school. The survey found that 22% of parents interviewed said their children skip breakfast on three to five school days of each week, and a further 20% skip breakfast on one or two school days. The remaining 58% of parents said their school aged children always ate breakfast before school.
Bupa* Chief Medical Officer Dr Christine Bennett said, "It is disturbing to find that 42% of children are sent to school on one or more days on an empty stomach because it sends a clear message at an early age that breakfast isn't important.
"Wagging breakfast is the healthy lifestyle equivalent of driving your car on an empty petrol tank – it inevitably runs out when you most need it.
"Research shows that skipping breakfast results in reduced learning, reduced attention and poor food choices for the rest of the day. Children who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight which in the long term can lead to the development of chronic health issues.
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IMPACT OF SCHOOL BREAKFAST ON CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND LEARNING: An Analysis of the Scientific Research
Comprehensive review of literature conducted by Harvard researchers, commissioned by the Sodexo Foundation
http://www.sodexofoundation.org/hunger_us/Images/Impact%20of%20School%20Breakfast%20Study_tcm150-212606.pdf
Excerpted from Executive Summary - The combined and quite consistent message of this body of research is that serving breakfast to those schoolchildren who don’t get it elsewhere significantly improves their cognitive or mental abilities, enabling them to be more alert, pay better attention, and to do better in terms of reading, math and other standardized test scores. Children who eat breakfast also are sick less often, have fewer problems associated with hunger, such as dizziness, lethargy, stomachaches and earaches, and do significantly better than their non-breakfasted peers in terms of cooperation, discipline and inter-personal behaviors.
Great quote from Report:
In 1917, the Surgeon General exclaimed, “This is an expensive stupidity…trying to educate children with half-starving bodies” (Sodexo Foundation, 2008 p. 13).
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School Breakfast: Information for Parents
http://school.fueluptoplay60.com/tools/nutrition-education/view.php?id=23959246
Fast and Healthy Food for Thought
Want your children to be alert, focused and ready to tackle the day's academic challenges? Encourage them to eat breakfast. Not just on test days, but every day of the year. It's well-documented that breakfast eaters are healthier and more energetic throughout the day.
Breakfast=Achievement
National studies consistently confirm that breakfast provides fuel for school and boosts brain power. Eating breakfast:
· Improves classroom performance, including better test scores and grades
· Increases children's ability to focus and concentrate on school work
· Decreases behavior problems, tardiness and visits to the school nurse
· Increases attendance rate
Just as important, when students routinely start their day with breakfast, chances are good that it will become a habit that carries into their teenage and adult years.
School Breakfast Ensures a Nutritious Start Every Day
Breakfast builds better bodies! If your children don't have time to eat at home or simply aren't hungry first thing in the morning, have them give school breakfast a try. It's a great option for all children, regardless of income! Here's why:
· School breakfast supplies 1/4 of the Recommended Daily Allowances a child needs.
· It's a healthy, nutritious meal that provides a variety of foods.
· It's easy and convenient. You can feel comfortable that your child is eating a nutritious meal and getting the best possible start to a day of learning.
Expanding Breakfast: Why Parents Should Care
Many schools capture breakfast skippers by Expanding Breakfast service beyond the cafeteria's walls. This may already be the case in your child's school. If not, it's worth asking your school nutrition director to consider it as an option. The reason - schools find that when they take breakfast to students, instead of expecting the student to come to the cafeteria, more students eat breakfast and gain the academic, behavioral and nutritional benefits. When all students in a classroom eat breakfast, everyone from teachers to students to parents wins. Typically, schools use one of three approaches, depending on their unique setting:
· Breakfast in the Classroom — Students eat breakfast in their classroom, either at the beginning of or early in the school day. A breakfast of easy-to-eat items, such as breakfast sandwiches and burritos, low-fat muffins, French toast sticks, cereals, plus milk and fruit or juice, are brought from the cafeteria to the classroom, often by students.
· Grab 'n' Go Breakfast — Breakfast is packaged so students can quickly grab it from the cafeteria or carts elsewhere in the school. They eat it in the cafeteria, the classroom or on the school grounds.
· Breakfast After 1st Period — Usually served in middle and high schools, students are allowed to get breakfast after their first period.
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FRAC Food Research and Action Center- School Breakfast Program
http://frac.org/federal-foodnutrition-programs/school-breakfast-and-lunch/school-breakfast-program/
FRAC is a member of the Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom, an initiative that aims to boost participation in school breakfast. Funded by a grant from the Walmart Foundation, the initiative will dramatically boost breakfast participation by supporting breakfast in the classroom programs in five high-need school districts (Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis, Orlando and Prince George’s County, MD.)
Why Serve Breakfast At School
Many children do not eat a nutritious breakfast every morning. Often families are living on very tight budgets and can’t afford to provide good breakfasts at home every day nor the money to buy them at school. Regardless of income, families today live busy lives that often make it difficult to sit down long enough in the morning to eat a nutritious breakfast. Sometimes children are not physically capable of eating breakfast at home when they first wake up. Other children may have long commutes to school or long periods between breakfast at home and school lunch, making breakfast at school an important option.
How Children Benefit
Studies conclude that students who eat school breakfast increase their math and reading scores as well as improve their speed and memory in cognitive tests. Research also shows that children who eat breakfast at school – closer to class and test-taking time – perform better on standardized tests than those who skip breakfast or eat breakfast at home. Evidence has grown that children who eat school breakfast are less likely to be overweight, and have improved nutrition – they eat more fruits, drink more milk, and consume a wider variety of foods than those who don’t eat breakfast or have breakfast at home.
Schools that offer breakfast free to all students in the classroom report decreases in discipline and psychological problems, visits to school nurses and tardiness; increases in student attentiveness and attendance; and generally improved learning environments.
FRAC - Breakfast for Learning – Scientific research on the link between children’s nutrition and academic performance
http://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/breakfastforlearning.pdf
FRAC -Breakfast for Health - There is a large body of research on the strong links between school breakfast consumption and favorable dietary, health, and educational outcomes among children and adolescents.
http://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/breakfastforhealth.pdf
FRAC - School Breakfast Scorecard – National and State findings about school breakfast participation
School Year 2010-2011- http://frac.org/pdf/school_breakfast_scorecard_2010-2011.pdf
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The Benefits of Breakfast: Health & Academics
http://www.breakfastfirst.org/pdfs/HealthAndAcademicBenefits.pdf
Breakfast is often said to be the most important meal of the day. Research shows that students benefit from eating breakfast in two primary ways. First, students’ overall dietary health is positively affected by breakfast consumption, particularly meals provided through the School Breakfast Program. Second, there is significant evidence of positive academic effects due to breakfast consumption. Schools experience improvements in standardized test scores and improvements in school attendance in addition to other outcomes that create positive learning environments. Serving school breakfast to all students helps ensure that they are well nourished and ready to learn.
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Feeding Opportunity: Ending Child Hunger Furthers the Goal of Cutting U.S. Poverty
in Half over the Next Decade
Joel Berg May 2010
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/pdf/feeding_opportunity.pdf
Section about expanding access to school breakfasts excerpted below:
Research proves that children who eat breakfast at school have higher test scores, fewer school nurse visits, act up less in class, and may even suffer less frequently from obesity. Yet daily school breakfast participation nationwide is only 36 percent of school lunch participation. Many suburban and rural schools don’t even serve breakfast. Even when it is served it is often too early or too late, making it impractical for students to eat.
Stigma is an even bigger problem with school breakfast than with lunch because while most kids eat lunch everyone knows that only the really poor kids go to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. A 2009 FRAC report showed that out of 25 big U.S. cities 22 had rates of free and reduced-price breakfast participation below 60 percent. The rate was below 50 percent in 14 of those cities. Many suburban and rural districts have even lower rates.
Universal and in-classroom breakfast benefits Universal and in-classroom breakfasts have already proven their success in select school districts nationwide. For instance, in Newark, New Jersey—which has both universal and in-classroom breakfasts—the district has a 94 percent breakfast participation rate. When I visited Newark to check out the effort for myself, I was