IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/revage/v29y2007i4p672-688..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Empirical Analysis of and Policy Recommendations to Improve the Nutritional Quality of School Meals

Author

Listed:
  • Barbara Wagner
  • Benjamin Senauer
  • C. Ford Runge

Abstract

The National School Lunch Program is not meeting its nutritional goals. Data for 330 Minnesota school districts are analyzed to derive recommendations for improving the nutritional quality of school lunches. This study finds, contrary to widely held views, that lunch sales do not decline when healthier meals with less fat, for example, are served and that more nutritious lunches do not necessarily cost more. Healthier meals have higher labor costs, but lower costs for processed foods. Indirect costs, paid by the food service to the school district, negatively affect meal quality by decreasing funds to upgrade kitchens and train staff to prepare more nutritious meals.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara Wagner & Benjamin Senauer & C. Ford Runge, 2007. "An Empirical Analysis of and Policy Recommendations to Improve the Nutritional Quality of School Meals," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 29(4), pages 672-688.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revage:v:29:y:2007:i:4:p:672-688.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-9353.2007.00380.x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philip M. Gleason & Carol W. Suitor, 2003. "Eating at School: How the National School Lunch Program Affects Children's Diets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(4), pages 1047-1061.
    2. מחקר - ביטוח לאומי, 2006. "Summary for 2005," Working Papers 29, National Insurance Institute of Israel.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thunstrom, Linda & Nordstrom, Jonas & Shogren, Jason F., 2016. "Healthy meals on the menu: A Swedish field experiment on labelling and restaurant sales," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 1-6, March.
    2. Ollinger, Michael & Ralston, Katherine & Guthrie, Joanne, 2011. "School Foodservice Costs: Location Matters," Economic Research Report 262241, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Jensen, Jørgen Dejgaard & Mørkbak, Morten Raun & Nordström, Jonas, 2012. "Economic Costs and Benefits of Promoting Healthy Takeaway Meals at Workplace Canteens," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(4), pages 1-27, December.
    4. Nordström, Jonas & Thunström, Linda, 2013. "The Impact of Price Reductions on Individuals' Choice of Healthy Meals Away from Home," Working Papers 2013:21, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    5. Ralston, Katherine L. & Newman, Constance & Clauson, Annette L. & Guthrie, Joanne F. & Buzby, Jean C., 2008. "The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends, and Issues," Economic Research Report 56464, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Productivity Commission, 2006. "Review of Price Regulation of Airports Services," Inquiry Reports, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia, number 40.
    2. MacCarty, Nordica A. & Bryden, Kenneth Mark, 2016. "An integrated systems model for energy services in rural developing communities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 536-557.
    3. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clarke, Damian & Mühlrad, Hanna & Palme, Mårten, 2021. "Health and Labor Market Impacts of Twin Birth : Evidence from a Swedish IVF Policy Mandate," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1391, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. Zhao, Chunkai & Chen, Boou & Song, Zhiyong, 2024. "School nutritious feeding and cognitive abilities of students in poverty: Evidence from the nutrition improvement program in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    5. N. N., 2005. "60th Euroconstruct Conference: The Prospects for the European Construction Market 2006-2008. Summary Report," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 25838.
    6. Lei Jin & Nicholas Chrisatakis, 2009. "Investigating the mechanism of marital mortality reduction: The transition to widowhood and quality of health care," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(3), pages 605-625, August.
    7. Ankit Gupta & Hemant Bherwani & Sneha Gautam & Saima Anjum & Kavya Musugu & Narendra Kumar & Avneesh Anshul & Rakesh Kumar, 2021. "Air pollution aggravating COVID-19 lethality? Exploration in Asian cities using statistical models," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 6408-6417, April.
    8. Ishdorj, Ariun & Crepinsek, Mary Kay & Jensen, Helen H., 2012. "Children’s Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables: Do School Environment and Policies Affect Choice in School Meals?," 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium 123534, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy, 2015. "The South African Sunflower Complex," BFAP Reports 279776, Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), BFAP Reports.
    10. Ariun Ishdorj & Mary Kay Crepinsek & Helen H. Jensen, 2013. "Children's Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables: Do School Environment and Policies Affect Choices at School and Away from School?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 341-359.
    11. Ellen Bouchery & Rebecca Morris & Jasmine Little, "undated". "Examining Substance Use Disorder Treatment Demand and Provider Capacity in a Changing Health Care System: Initial Findings Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports b0d83ca544284ee7a053b2788, Mathematica Policy Research.
    12. Sun-Jin Yun, 2012. "Nuclear power for climate mitigation? Contesting frames in Korean newspapers," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 57-73, May.
    13. Hristovska, Tatjana & Watkins, K. Bradley & Anders, Merle M., 2012. "An Economic Risk Analysis of No-till Management for the Rice-Soybean Rotation System used in Arkansas," 2012 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2012, Birmingham, Alabama 119676, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    14. International Monetary Fund, 2008. "The Gambia: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix," IMF Staff Country Reports 2008/325, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Nicholas W Calderone, 2012. "Insect Pollinated Crops, Insect Pollinators and US Agriculture: Trend Analysis of Aggregate Data for the Period 1992–2009," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-27, May.
    16. Alexa Spence & Wouter Poortinga & Nick Pidgeon, 2012. "The Psychological Distance of Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 957-972, June.
    17. Crouse, Dan L. & Ross, Nancy A. & Goldberg, Mark S., 2009. "Double burden of deprivation and high concentrations of ambient air pollution at the neighbourhood scale in Montreal, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 971-981, September.
    18. Decataldo, Alessandra & Fiore, Brunella, 2018. "Is eating in the school canteen better to fight overweight? A sociological observational study on nutrition in Italian children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 246-256.
    19. Watkins, K. Bradley & Hignight, Jeffrey A. & Anders, Merle M., 2011. "The Impacts of Farm Size and Economic Risk on No-Till Rice Whole-Farm Profitability," 2011 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2011, Corpus Christi, Texas 98733, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    20. Schepelmann, Philipp & Goossens, Yanne & Makipaa, Arttu (ed.), 2009. "Towards sustainable development: Alternatives to GDP for measuring progress," Wuppertal Spezial, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, volume 42, number 42.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:revage:v:29:y:2007:i:4:p:672-688.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.