During the 2009-10 school year, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) experimented with the removal of a la carte foods in one middle school and two high schools as a way to reduce stigma and increase National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation. Learning from this pilot, SFUSD decided to eliminate all a la carte meals from schools during the 2010-11 school year. This project proposes a quantitative evaluation of the outcomes from this intervention. The intervention and its evaluation have broad policy relevance to national school food and child nutrition policies, including those related to funding the NSLP, and USDA regulations including financial record keeping of competitive foods. The specific aims of this study are to: 1) assess quantitative changes in student NSLP participation by income level (free/reduced/paid) before and after the removal of competitive foods, utilizing NSLP program participation data, and 2) assess quantitative changes in NSLP operating costs and revenues before and after the intervention, evaluating whether the elimination of competitive foods resulted in a positive effect on school finances. The study will take place in a large, multi-ethnic, urban school district of over 53,000 students, 61% of whom are qualified for free and reduced-price meals.
Start Date: November 2011
ID #: 69485
Principal Investigator: Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH
Organization: San Francisco Department of Public Health
Funding Round: Rapid-Response Round 4
Age Groups: Adolescents (grades 9 to 12), Young adolescents (grades 6 to 8)
State: California
Keywords: Competitive foods, Food service, School meal programs, Snacks
Resource Type: Grant Summary
Race/Ethnicity: Multi-racial/ethnic
Focus Areas: Nutrition Policy & Programs, School & After School
Related Research
February 2023
Rapid Health Impact Assessment on Changes to School Nutrition Standards to Align with 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
The national school breakfast and lunch programs administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are cornerstone federal nutrition assistance programs. School meals are one of the healthiest sources of foods for school-age children, which is significant as some children receive up to half of their daily calories at school. Policy opportunities in 2023 MoreJanuary 2023
Evaluation of WIC Online Ordering during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from an Oklahoma Grocery Store Chain
The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening the disparities in food access in the United States. As consumers have been increasingly using grocery online ordering services to limit their exposure to the COVID-19 virus, participants of federal nutrition assistance programs lack the online benefit redemption option. With the support of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), retailers MoreNovember 2022