Competitive Foods in Schools: Revenue Issues & Nutrition Standards for Snacks (Nutrition and Diet Research Progress)

Across America, meals provided through USDA’s National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) supply most of the foods and beverages obtained by children at school. Most schools also sell competitive foods, or “á la carte” items, alongside USDA school meals, in vending machines, or in school stores and snack bars, with proceeds going to the school food-service or fundraising school groups. These foods have been widely criticised as being of low nutritional value, undercutting public efforts to improve children’s diets and prevent obesity. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 requires schools that offer USDA school meals to limit competitive foods to those that meet updated nutrition standards, under development by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Limiting the types of competitive foods available for sale may result in lost revenue for school food-services, which depend to varying degrees on this revenue stream. Because USDA school meal programs are a part of the Nation’s nutrition safety net, the contribution that competitive food revenues make to food-services serving economically vulnerable student populations is of particular interest. This book examines how updated nutrition standards for competitive foods might affect competitive food availability, and the implications for food-service revenues.