Dive Brief:
- Universal school meal policies have a “modest” impact on reducing obesity among school-aged children, according to a University of Washington study published this month in the journal Pediatrics.
- Of the 3,531 low-income California public schools studied between 2013 and 2019, schools opting into the Community Eligibility Provision saw an average net reduction in obesity prevalence by 2.4% when compared with eligible schools that didn’t participate.
- These findings provide a glimpse into the potential impact universal school meal policies can have on students’ overall health and well-being, researchers wrote.
Dive Insight:
The University of Washington study builds upon a growing body of research pointing to benefits of universal school meals for children. It comes at a pivotal time when states are passing or considering their own universal school meal policies following the expiration of the pandemic-era temporary federal policy.
With Congress electing not to continue that program, President Joe Biden’s administration has eyed expanding access to free school meals for all through the Community Eligibility Provision. That provision allows all students in high-poverty districts to receive free breakfast and lunch without requiring families to fill out applications if at least 25% of students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized a federal regulation making another 3,000 school districts eligible for the Community Eligibility Provision.
In another positive finding on the effects of free school meals, a January study published in the American Educational Research Journal highlighted how schools enrolled in the Community Eligibility Program experience “a protective effect on suspension rates.”
The researchers on that study said that they “suspect that universal meal provision — a policy designed to improve student nutrition and reduce administrative burden — can contribute to a broader effort to reform school disciplinary climates by reducing the stigma experienced by economically disadvantaged students.”
Meanwhile, among five states that implemented their own universal school meal policies, school breakfast and lunch participation rose 6% during the 2022-23 school year over pre-pandemic levels, according to a February report from the Food Research & Action Center.
Skyrocketing childhood obesity has been a concern for the past three decades, with rates having tripled in the U.S.
And the pandemic did not help. Beyond creating a surge in academic and behavioral concerns in schools, the pandemic also had an impact on children’s obesity rates. The share of children and teens ages 2 to 19 considered obese jumped from 19.3% in August 2019 to 22.4% the following year, according to data released in 2021 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With the pandemic hurting children’s both physical and mental well-being, the University of Washington research provides evidence that universal school meal policies could potentially help curb some of COVID’s lingering effects.
The University of Washington study also gauged school obesity prevalence by calculating a total of over 3.5 million body mass index measurements of children in grades 5, 7 and 9 on an annual basis between 2013 and 2019.
