What's in children's backpacks: foods brought from home

Abstract

Forty-one percent of elementary schoolchildren bring lunch to school on any given day. Forty-five percent bring snacks. Surprisingly, little is known about the foods and beverages they bring. This cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the GREEN (Growing Right: Eco-friendly Eating and Nutrition) Project Lunch Box Study sought to characterize foods and beverages brought from home to school by elementary schoolchildren and compare the quality of packed lunches with National School Lunch Program standards and packed snacks with Child and Adult Care Food Program requirements. Lunches and snacks from 626 elementary schoolchildren were assessed and evaluated using digital photography and a supplemental food checklist. Food and beverage types most likely to be provided for lunch were sandwiches (59%), snack foods (42%), fruit (34%), desserts (28%), water (28%), and sugar-sweetened beverages (24%). Twenty-seven percent of lunches met at least three of five National School Lunch Program standards. At snack, snack foods (62%), desserts (35%), and sugar-sweetened beverages (35%) were more common than fruits (30%), dairy foods (10%), and vegetables (3%). Only 4% of snacks met two of four Child and Adult Care Food Program standards. Future research is needed to understand the multiple determinants of food-packing behavior, including constraints faced by families. School wellness policies should consider initiatives that work collaboratively with parents to improve the quality of foods brought from home.

Keywords: Children; Food-based standards; Nutritional quality; Packed lunches; School nutrition.

Copyright © 2014 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1. Typical lunches and snacks brought from home to school by 626 participants at baseline in the GREEN Project Lunch Box Study

Aerial view (1A) and angle view (1B) of typical lunch and snack contents. Lunch contents (labeled “2): water, sandwich, and snackfood. Snack contents (labeled “1”): Sugar-sweetened beverage, snackfood, and fruit. Aerial view (2A) and angle view (2B) of typical snack contents: Sugar-sweetened beverage, dessert, and snackfood.