School Lunches Linked to Obesity

DALLASKids who eat school-provided lunch are more likely to become overweight than kids who dont. In a study funded by USDA, researchers found that kids who eat lunches that are part of the National School Lunch Program are more likely to become overweight than kids who eat both school-sponsored breakfast and lunch, or kids who dont eat school lunches at all.

"The fact that federally funded school lunches contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic is disconcerting, although not altogether surprising," said economist Daniel L. Millimet at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

For the study, published in The Journal of Human Resources, the researchers analyzed data on more than 13,500 elementary school students. Students were interviewed in kindergarten, first and third grades, and then again in later grades.

USDA oversees the federal lunch and breakfast programs. Through USDA the federal government reimburses schools for a portion of school lunch costs and also donates surplus agricultural food items. While USDA does require that the meals meet certain nutritional standards, schools choose the specific foods. Further, schools can offer a la carte items that fall outside the scope of the federal guidelines. Sales of such items are believed to receive high priority as they help boost school revenue in a time of severe budget cuts. 
"Technically what is going on is that the federal government establishes nutrition guidelines for lunches and breakfasts if schools wish to receive federal funding," Millimet said. "But there's evidence that school lunches are less in compliance with these guidelines than breakfasts. The other possible issue is that these days schools try to make money from a la carte items at lunch. And it's possible that even if the school lunch is healthy, kids buying lunch are more likely to tack on extra items that are not healthy."

The National Student Lunch Program supplies meals to about 30 million children in 100,000 public and nonprofit private schools, according to USDA. The School Breakfast Program gives cash assistance to more than 80,000 schools for about 10 million children.