A study out Tuesday showed that some school children are throwing away the fruits and vegetables they are now required to put on their lunch trays instead of eating them as hoped.
It offers insight into how the healthy school lunch regulations in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 could tackle concerns about child obesity, but at least one expert says more research, and more creative ideas, would be helpful.
Congress will debate reauthorization of the act next month when lawmakers return from the August recess.
The study, published Tuesday in Public Health Reports, examined the lunch trays of children at two elementary schools once before the new mandate and a year later when the mandate was in effect. Researchers found that fruit and vegetable consumption declined by 13% and children were throwing away about 56% more food.
The study admittedly was limited in its ability to reflect on the rest of the country because it focused on two schools in the Northeast with many students on free or reduced meals.
That's why some experts hope Congress won't pay too much mind to the study's results.
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, an associate professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, said the study of wasted food only looked at one aspect of the revamped nutrition guidelines and that there are other options for trying to get students to eat their fruits and vegetables.
Rewarding children who eat the most nutritious foods has been shown to be effective, and presentation and cooking method can make a difference as well, she said.
“You've got to keep putting vegetables in front of kids,” she said.
More data will provide a fuller picture when the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study is released in about a year, she said.
