New Data on the Nutritional Quality of School Lunches (In Focus Brief)
In Focus Brief
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Associated Project
School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study IV (SNDA IV)
Prepared for:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 authorized new child nutrition funding and policies that affect the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). Since the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has sponsored the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment (SNDA) studies to update information on key nutritional characteristics of the meals provided to children through these programs. The SNDA studies also measure the progress schools are making toward meeting national nutrition standards and have long been a reliable source of information for policymakers seeking to improve the two programs. The fourth SNDA study (SNDA-IV), conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, collected data from nationally representative samples of public school districts and schools in school year (SY) 2009–2010. This important study provides the latest information on the nutritional quality of school meals and will serve as a baseline for measuring schools’ success in implementing newly authorized requirements for the NSLP and SBP.
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