| Project: Assessing Alternative Policies for Improving the School Food Environment |
| Award Year: 2007 |
| Amount of award, fiscal 2007: $200,000.00 |
| Institution: University of South Carolina |
| Principal Investigator: Sonya Jones |
| Status: Completed |
| Detailed Objective: In addition to USDA school meals, many American schools sell additional food and beverages through vending machines, a la carte cafeteria lines, snack bars, and/or other sources. Limiting sales of these foods and beverages, often termed "competitive foods" because they are sold in competition with USDA school meals programs, has been recommended as a means of reducing childhood obesity and improving students' diets. Several States have enacted regulations concerning the sale of competitive foods in school, creating a "natural experiment" of the effectiveness of such policies. This study will match information on State regulations with data from the fifth and eighth grade panels of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). The ECLS-K is a large, national, longitudinal data set that follows children from kindergarten through eighth grade to examine outcomes associated with State policies governing the school food environment.
Relevant outcomes include the types of food and beverages purchased at school, the frequency of consumption for certain foods and beverages, school meal program participation, and child weight status. Results from the study should provide insight into Federal, State, and local policies designed to improve the school food environment. |
| Topic: Child Nutrition, Dietary Intake and Quality, Obesity, School Lunch and Breakfast |
| Dataset: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) |
Output:
Gonzalez, W., S. Jones, and E. Frongillo. “Restricting Snacks in U.S. Elementary Schools Is Associated with Higher Frequency of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption,” The Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 139, Issue 1, January 2009.
Jones ,S., Y. Chu, M. Burke , A. Teixeira, C. Blake, and E. Frongillo. “A Case for Targeting Marketing and Availability in School Food Policy: Adolescents' Food Purchases at School and Exposure to Television, Internet, and Video Games,” Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2012.
Jones, S., W. Gonzalez, and E. Frongillo. “Policies That Restrict Sweetened Beverage Availability May Reduce Consumption in Elementary-School Children,” Public Health Nutrition, Vol. 13, Issue 4, April 2010.
Shroff, M., S. Jones, E. Frongillo, and M. Howlett. “Policy Instruments Used by States Seeking to Improve School Food Environment,” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 102, Issue 2, February 2012. |