COLUMBUS – A new study appears to cast doubt on claims that kids are turning up their noses at healthier school meals.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
A federal law designed to serve healthier foods — including fruits and vegetables — in school lunches hasn’t caused kids to stop eating the lunches, a new study shows.
The federal Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act delivered more-nutritious school lunches with no major decline in school meal participation, said Donna Johnson, a professor of health services at the University of Washington in Seattle who co-authored the study.
“Anecdotally, there were people saying that that’s what happened,” but the study shows that the law has been implemented without any real negative side effects, Johnson said. “There may have been individuals who were unhappy, but overall the meals got healthier.”
The revised standards took effect for the 2012-13 school year. They increased the availability of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and created other food requirements for tens of millions of students nationally.
In Columbus City Schools, the state’s largest district, about 74 percent of students eat a prepared school lunch and 52 percent a breakfast, said Food Services Director Joe Brown. The district’s participation rate decreased slightly — by about a percentage point or two — in the year the new program rolled out, but Brown expects that was temporary.