Background: Little is known about adolescents' food purchasing behaviors in rural areas. This study examined whether purchasing food at stores/restaurants around schools was related to adolescents' participation in school breakfast programs and overall diet in rural Minnesota. Methods: Breakfast-skippers enrolled in a group-randomized intervention…

Purpose/Objectives: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) new school meals regulations went into effect in July 2012. The purpose of this research was to explore school nutrition director's (SNDs) perspectives and attitudes about the new regulations and to identify strategies used to prepare for and subsequently implement the regulations.…

Consumption of fast food has been linked to weight gain in adults. Fast food has also been associated with higher caloric intake and poorer diet quality in children and adolescents. From 1994 through 2006, caloric intake from fast food increased from 10% to 13% among children aged 2-18 years. This report presents the most recent data on the…

The project reported here evaluated the effectiveness of nutrition education at food pantries. We offer best practices for future Extension-based nutrition programming with this clientele. Three classes were offered at food pantries through the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). Entry and exit surveys were collected for each…

Purpose/Objectives: The Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 extended the requirements for a school food safety program to wherever food is stored, prepared, or served, including meals for field trips. The purpose of this study was to determine what foods are used for field trip meals, how those foods are transported and stored, and what standard…

Background: Competitive foods remain prevalent in schools even though the majority of states' laws have addressed this for several years. Whereas updated federal standards take effect during school year 2014-2015, aspects of competitive food regulation will remain relegated to the states and districts and concerns exist about compliance with…

This report demonstrates how existing national data can be used to first calculate upper limits on the average cost per participant and per outcome per state/territory for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). These upper limits can then be used by state EFNEP administrators to obtain more precise estimates for their states,…

Child-care facilities that participate in the federally assisted Child and Adult Care Food Program are required to follow meal patterns that meet the nutrient needs for child growth and development. The purpose of this research is to use the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Nutrient Analysis Protocols to evaluate child-care menus in order to…

Background: Schools can play a major role in prevention and intervention for childhood obesity. We describe changes in elementary school cafeteria lunch sales patterns resulting from nutritional improvements in menu offerings that were part of a community-wide focus on health. Methods: Elementary school lunch sales data were collected for 1 week…

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify theory-based psychosocial and environmental determinants of parental monitoring practices related to child sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. Design: Cross-sectional design. Method: Data were obtained from a convenience sample of parents (n = 270) with children attending an after-school…

Background: Obesity and associated chronic diseases are increasing in frequency in African populations that also have a high burden of disease from infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Obesity and diabetes mellitus are common in Swaziland, Southern Africa, where >10% of children under the age of five are already obese.…

We examine the impact of serving fruit smoothies during school breakfast on fruit consumption among middle school and high school students. We draw on observational plate-waste data over a 10-week period during which fruit smoothies were introduced for breakfast at two Utah schools. Our total sample includes 2,760 student-day observations. We find…

Major supermarket chains increasingly are requiring their produce suppliers to provide evidence of compliance with on-farm food safety standards, known as Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs). To develop a relevant GAP training curriculum that meets the needs of Pennsylvania growers, supermarkets that operate in the state were surveyed to determine…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to provide baseline data and characteristics of food served and consumed prior to the recently mandated nutrition standards as authorized by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA). Methods: Over 600,000 school lunch menus with associated food production records from 61 elementary schools…

By now, we are all aware of the effect of super-sized food portions. Very young children regulate their food intake by internal cues (when they feel full) rather than by portion size. As children age, external cues have more influence than internal cues. Hence, larger portion sizes promote more energy intake in older children, leading to caloric…