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Author: John Matthew Bereza Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to make transparent the current National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The first mission of this project is to clarify how the NSLP functions on a day-to-day basis in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is used as a sample city, yet the aim of this research is to be transferable to other locations. The second objective is to gain a clearer understanding of the NSLP from the perspective of those who work in the field, and how they would like to improve the Program. This study employs qualitative inquiry through the use of individual interviews and observations to measure the participants. The approach is naturalistic, which encourages the researcher to interact with the sample in their natural environment. The perspective is that of eleven individuals working for the National School Lunch Program. Through a guided interviewing process these participants spoke of their experiences in the current nutritional model, and gave suggestions of improvement. Their stories on nutrition, hopes of better food, and equitable lunches were audio-recorded, and the data were analyzed and coded in a final report. The results from this investigation reveal that the National School Lunch Program is a spike, or a foreign object inserted into an environment, having little interaction with the community. In addition, those working in the National School Lunch Program often did not see problems with the initiative (even in the face of growing obesity, inattentive disorders, and mood issues). During the interviews it became apparent that many in the NSLP see the benefits of bringing in more local, fresher foods for the students, but they could not imagine going against the hierarchy of the NSLP. In response to the first research question, how the NSLP functions, the most frequent response was through near total control. Indeed, this faltering program, one that the USDA has hopes of making healthier, sees itself as unchangeable.
Author: John Matthew Bereza Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to make transparent the current National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The first mission of this project is to clarify how the NSLP functions on a day-to-day basis in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is used as a sample city, yet the aim of this research is to be transferable to other locations. The second objective is to gain a clearer understanding of the NSLP from the perspective of those who work in the field, and how they would like to improve the Program. This study employs qualitative inquiry through the use of individual interviews and observations to measure the participants. The approach is naturalistic, which encourages the researcher to interact with the sample in their natural environment. The perspective is that of eleven individuals working for the National School Lunch Program. Through a guided interviewing process these participants spoke of their experiences in the current nutritional model, and gave suggestions of improvement. Their stories on nutrition, hopes of better food, and equitable lunches were audio-recorded, and the data were analyzed and coded in a final report. The results from this investigation reveal that the National School Lunch Program is a spike, or a foreign object inserted into an environment, having little interaction with the community. In addition, those working in the National School Lunch Program often did not see problems with the initiative (even in the face of growing obesity, inattentive disorders, and mood issues). During the interviews it became apparent that many in the NSLP see the benefits of bringing in more local, fresher foods for the students, but they could not imagine going against the hierarchy of the NSLP. In response to the first research question, how the NSLP functions, the most frequent response was through near total control. Indeed, this faltering program, one that the USDA has hopes of making healthier, sees itself as unchangeable.
Author: Wendi Anne Gosliner Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 118
Book Description
Abstract The National School Lunch Program: Ideas, proposals, policies, and politics shaping students' experiences with school lunch in the United States, 1946 - present By Wendi Anne Gosliner Doctor of Public Health University of California, Berkeley Professor Ann Keller, Chair On an average school day in 2012, The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) supported the provision of lunch meals to almost 2/3 of school-age youth in the United States. Recent spikes in childhood obesity rates and the emergence of childhood-onset Type 2 diabetes have brought renewed attention to the program's potential to positively impact the health of the nation's youth. The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 began a process of reforming the NSLP, requiring schools to serve foods consistent with updated nutrition standards, representing the most important punctuation to school lunch policy in decades. The three papers comprising this dissertation provide new insights into ways the public health nutrition community can support the success of the new policies, and continue to improve the impact of the school lunch program on children's health and development. The first paper examines the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption at school and specific factors in the school setting, such as the amount of time available to eat lunch, the quality and variety of produce options served, and whether students are involved in food service decision-making. This cross sectional study of California 7th and 9th grade students (n=5,439) was conducted in 31 schools in 2010. Multilevel regression models were used to assess relationships between students' responses to survey questions regarding school food behaviors and recorded observations of school food environments. The study found that a longer lunch period was associated with increased odds of a student eating fruits (40%) and vegetables (54%) at school. Fruit quality increased the odds of a student consuming fruit at school (44%). Including a salad bar and involving students in food service decisions increased a student's odds of consuming vegetables at school (48% and 34%, respectively). The findings suggest that institutional factors in schools are positively associated with middle and high school students' consumption of produce items at school. The second paper explores the original issues and arguments that were presented by advocates, administration officials, and members of Congress in the 1940's, when a National School Lunch program first was being debated in Congress. Political science theory suggests that understanding history can provide insight into current policy debates. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the early framing and arguments that led to the original structure of the NSLP. It was hypothesized that understanding the full complement of issues and arguments debated at the time the program was established would help explain the policies that shape current school lunch environments. This study examined the transcripts of the three Congressional hearings held in 1944-1945, when proposals for establishing ongoing federal support for school lunch programs were first considered in Congress. The study identifies many issues of contention in the early debates, including whether the primary program objective was to serve the Nation's agricultural needs or to support children's health and wellbeing, which federal agency would administer the program, the degree to which federal resources should be used to support school meals, which children would benefit from school lunch programs, whether food and nutrition education should be included, and whether resources would be provided for equipment and training of personnel. The paper shows that the outcome of the early debates continues to shape present policies, and that modern advocates' vision for an optimal school lunch program mirrors the vision of advocates in the 1940's. The paper underscores the importance of understanding the school lunch program's history, in order to more effectively promote and protect children's opportunities to benefit from school meals. The final paper presents the results of a pilot study of legislative documents from the National School Lunch Program's history (1946 - present), in order to provide a longer-term perspective on the evolution of the program. The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the school lunch policy ideas and proposals that have appeared on the federal decision-making agenda over time, in order to inform future directions for research and advocacy related to school lunch policy. A ProQuest Congressional search utilizing the search terms "school lunch," "school meal," "child nutrition," or "school nutrition" was conducted, and all hearing and bill summaries were reviewed. The findings suggest that Congressional attention to school lunch, in the form of legislative hearings and bills, has shifted over time, with more legislative attention devoted to the program during the period of expansion in the late 1960s through the period of curtailment in the early to mid-1980s. Further, the study shows that the program consistently has suffered from constrained resources, and that periods of investment in the NSLP have been followed by efforts to curtail the program. The study also reveals that after the program's beginning, many issues cycled on and off of the federal decision-making agenda. These issues include: the degree to which the program should be administered at the federal or state level; which students should benefit from school meals; whether nutrition education should be included; what foods and beverages are served; and how the USDA-distributed commodities should be structured. While the school lunch program generally enjoys bi-partisan support, policymakers have not yet exhibited the political will to provide a program consistent with advocates' desires to operate seamlessly within the school system and offer healthy meals to all students. Future efforts to support and improve the program can now be informed with a better understanding of the program's past political successes and failures. Recommendations about ways the public health nutrition community can continue to support and improve the National School Lunch Program, based on the history described, conclude the paper. Together, these three papers highlight both opportunities and challenges facing the National School Lunch Program. Cast in the light of this historical perspective, advocates for ideas that have failed in the past can see the value of considering whether current approaches are vulnerable to the same politics that trumped them in past political battles. Similarly, program supporters should understand the proposals to dismantle the federal school lunch program, and why they failed, in order to be prepared to defend the program against similar proposals that may be anticipated in the future. Further, these papers show that while the public health nutrition community may perceive the school lunch program to be a stable federal investment, this perceived stability may be more a function of political good fortune than of a strong and secure federal commitment to children's health and nutrition. Yet current projections suggest that investing in the nutritional health of today's youth is especially important, given the costly epidemics of early-onset diet-related chronic diseases now plaguing the nation. We can no longer afford not to provide a robust and effective National School Lunch Program.
Author: Gordon W. Gunderson Publisher: Nova Publishers ISBN: 9781590336397 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 204
Book Description
School food service programs such as those of 1971 did not just happen overnight nor even during the past decade. Preceding today's programs is a long history of over one hundred years of development, constant research, testing and evaluating, in order to provide the best nutrition, nutrition education and food services for the nation's millions of children in school. This book provides a brief background on school lunch programs in Europe, as well as the early attempts in the United States. Also included in the book is the School Lunch Act along with the current issues and development that school food service programs face today.
Author: Constance Newman Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 29
Book Description
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) serves more than 29 million children each day, but there is little information on the characteristics of those children. This study reports new estimates of NSLP participant characteristics using two national surveys: the 2001 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Study results also show that these two surveys are suitable sources of data on NSLP participants since they are consistent with more aggregated administrative data of the Food and Nutrition Service. The surveys supplement periodic characteristics data available from the School Nutrition and Dietary Assessment (SNDA) surveys. Appended is information comparing SIPP and NHANES with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Administrative Data and the 1992 School Nutrition Dietary Assessment I. (Contains 13 tables.).
Author: Rachel Dunifon Publisher: ISBN: Category : Children Languages : en Pages : 17
Book Description
The National School Lunch Program in the United States aims to provide nutritious foods to school-age children at full price or, for low-income students, at no or reduced cost. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), this paper examines the impact of the program on child behavior, literacy and numeracy, and body weight, for children in kindergarten and first grade.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309161568 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 141
Book Description
The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, administered by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), are key components of the nation's food security safety net, providing free or low-cost meals to millions of school-age children each day. Under the most commonly adopted provisions, USDA reimburses districts for meals served on the basis of data collected in a "base year," during which applications are taken. After 3 or 4 years, applications must be taken again to establish new base-year data, unless the district provides evidence that local conditions have not changed. A special provision that does not require applications to be taken every few years would reduce burden, be more attractive to school districts, and potentially increase student participation by expanding access to free meals. To support the development of such a provision, the Food and Nutrition Service asked the National Academies to study the technical and operational issues that arise in using data from the American Community Survey (ACS)-a new continuous survey replacing the long-form survey of the decennial census-to obtain estimates of students who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals for schools and school districts. Such estimates would be used to develop "claiming percentages" that, if sufficiently accurate, would determine federal reimbursements to districts for the schools that provide free meals to all students under a new special provision that eliminates the base-year requirements of current provisions.
Author: John Matthew Bereza
Author: John Matthew Bereza
Author: Wendi Anne Gosliner
Author: Constance Newman
Author: Catherine Ralston
Author: Gordon W. Gunderson
Author: Constance Newman
Author: Rachel Dunifon
Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Author: National Research Council
Author: