We examine the effect of the School Breakfast Program (SBP) availability with the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey III. Our work builds on previous research by developing a transparent difference-in-differences strategy to account for unobserved differences between students with access to SBP and those without, using serum…

The number of overweight and obese children and adolescents has reached epidemic proportions, and recent federal surveys show that most school meals do not meet federal nutrition guidelines. Accordingly, there is growing interest in the nutritional quality of foods available in U.S. schools--and in the role of the government in helping to make…

More than 50 million meals are served annually to Colorado's children through the national school lunch program, school breakfast program, special milk program, and summer food service program. This report provides descriptions of these programs, information on free and reduced price meals and how to qualify, revenue sources for these programs, a…

To discover the effects of breakfast on reading achievement a study was conducted comparing 100 primary students from the 1975-1976 school year before a school breakfast program was instituted and 100 students from the 1977-1978 school year who participated in a school breakfast program. Reading scores from the California Achievement Test…

This report investigates three important aspects of National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) participation using recently collected data on a large, nationally representative sample of students certified for free and reduced-price meals during the 2005-2006 school year. First, we examine the factors that influence…

"Kids Count in Colorado!" is an annual publication of the Colorado Children's Campaign, which provides the best available state- and county-level data to measure and track the education, health and general well-being of the state's children. "Kids Count in Colorado!" informs policy debates and community discussions, serving as…

This report identifies those qualities and characteristics that are usually associated with efficiently and effectively operated school food-service programs. Data were extracted from district audit reports filed with the South Carolina State Department of Education; from the South Carolina Department of Education Office of School Food-services;…

In early 1994, Central Falls, Rhode Island's Kids First, a collaborative partnership between the Central Falls School Department and local community leaders, launched a pilot universally-free school breakfast program (UF-SBP) called "Operation Breakfast." One of the goals of Operation Breakfast was to improve SBP participation; school…

The Antioch Unified School District is one of several California schools testing a version of the Nutrient Standard Menu Planning (NSMP) to meet the new rules that require all schools to reduce the fat content of meals. NSMP, presently implemented at the elementary level, has increased flexibility in menu planning and led to better management and…

This year's budget cleaver has chopped away at school cafeteria budgets across the country. In some districts, this means fewer choices on the lunch line, fewer staffers, deteriorating equipment, and more sales of snack and processed foods. Some schools have dropped the School Lunch Program because of budget cuts. (MLH)

Recent increases in child obesity have sparked concerns about competitive foods--foods sold to students at school that are not part of federally reimbursable school meals. The nutritional value of these foods is largely unregulated, and students can often purchase these foods in addition to or instead of school meals. Nearly 9 out of 10 schools…

In Fall 1998, the Maryland State Department of Education and six local school systems started a pilot program to evaluate the impact of serving breakfast to students in the classroom as part of the school day. Students in participating schools have an opportunity to eat breakfast in their classroom each day at no charge, regardless of family…

The national nutrition safety net consists of 15 programs that provide millions of low-income Americans access to a healthy and nutritious diet. It has been observed that many low income individuals are both overweight and participants in one or more nutrition assistance programs. This has led some to question whether participation in the…

The School Breakfast Program (SBP) celebrates its 20th year in 1995. It is an entitlement program available to any public or nonprofit private school or youth home that chooses to participate. This report includes the latest available school-breakfast participation data for school year 1994-95, and compares it to similar data for the previous…

The School Breakfast Program supplies federal funds to schools and residential child care institutions who provide breakfasts to children. This status report compares the performances of states to each other and to the nation as a whole in school breakfast participation. States are grouped in categories of the 10 top- and bottom-ranked…