Purpose/Objectives: Individuals in rural areas experience higher food insecurity. The School Breakfast Program (SBP) and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) reduce food insecurity. Yet, SBP participation remains lower than NSLP participation. This study aimed to examine differences in parental perception relative to the NSLP and the SBP in…

Purpose/Objectives: The average Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI) score for children 2-17 years is 53.9/100, which needs improvement. HEI scores for dietary quality (DQ) directly and positively impact children's health, academic performance, and their future. Because school Child Nutrition Programs impact a large proportion of U.S. children, it is…

According to the Ethiopia Ministry of Education (2015), school feeding initiatives, such as feeding children in food insecure conditions, providing educational resources, and school meals are essential for supporting access to general education. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of school feeding program on the academic…

The latest round of fiscal austerity in Ghana has meant that the feeding rate paid to the service providers of Ghana's school feeding programme is both frozen and unrealistically low. Accordingly, service providers adopt discretionary coping strategies. This qualitative case study, therefore, explores the impacts of austerity on children's school…

Background: The National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs help to reduce food insecurity and improve nutrition. The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) enables high-poverty schools to offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all students. This study examines associations between CEP and participation among students eligible for free or…

There are racial and ethnic disparities in use of out-of-school suspensions within the United States. The present study assessed for the presence of disproportionate suspension by race, special education status, and receipt of free or reduced cost meals using two separate metrics (risk ratios and raw differential representation); evaluated…

This article is a compilation of Child Nutrition Showcase research poster abstracts. Abstracts for the following papers are included: (1) Key Performance Indicators for Use as Benchmarking Tools for School Nutrition Programs (Penny Howard and Alicia Landry); (2) Professional Standards and District Directors' Qualifications (Caitlin Merlo); (3)…

This paper examines whether schoolwide free meals affect disciplinary outcomes, focusing on the use of suspensions. Under the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), schools serving sufficiently high-poverty populations may enroll their entire student bodies in free lunch and breakfast programs, extending free meals to some students who would not…

This paper examines the discourse on school meals, as evidence suggests that political agendas feed into policy making. The paper fills a void by proposing new insights into how school meals could be reformed, following reflections from a doctoral study and a review of the changing narrative on school food in England. Recommendations include…

Although education stakeholders agreed on achieving Education for All by 2015, high wastage rates in developing countries has remained a major concern. In Kenya, data shows that more than one million primary age children are still out school. In many countries, school feeding programmes has been used as one of the interventions to promote…

This study sought to examine the extent of contribution of school feeding programmes towards the achievement of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy in countries. Based on a purposive sampling of a deprived rural community in northern Ghana, the study utilised the concurrent mixed method design relying mainly on documentary…

Background: A 2010 publication showed a positive relationship between children's body mass index (BMI) and energy intake at school-provided meals (as assessed by direct meal observations). To help explain that relationship, we investigated 7 outcome variables concerning aspects of school-provided meals: energy content of items selected, number of…

One in four children in the state of Georgia is food insecure. In the city of Athens, 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, the number approaches one in three. More than 33 percent of residents have significantly limited access to healthy foods, living in areas of the city that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has identified as food deserts.…

Background. Family homes are a key setting for developing lifelong eating and physical activity habits, yet little is known about how family home nutrition and physical activity (FNPA) environments influence food insecurity (FI) and childhood obesity, particularly in rural settings. Aims. This study examined associations among FNPA, FI, and body…

Purpose/Objectives: Analyses were conducted to examine variations in fourth-grade children's participation in school-breakfast and school-lunch programs by weekday, month, socioeconomic status, absenteeism, gender, and school-breakfast location. Methods: Fourth-grade children were participants in a dietary-reporting validation study during either…