Associations among School Characteristics and Foodservice Practices in a Nationally Representative Sample of United States Schools

Abstract

Objective Determine school characteristics associated with healthy/unhealthy foodservice offerings or healthy food preparation practices. Design Retrospective analysis of cross-sectional data. Setting Nationally representative sample of public and private elementary, middle and high schools. Participants 526 and 520 schools with valid data from the 2006 School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS) Food Service School Questionnaire. Main Outcome Measure(s) Scores for healthy/unhealthy foodservice offerings and healthy food preparation practices. Analysis Multivariable regression to determine significant associations among school characteristics and offerings/preparation practices. Results Public schools and schools participating in USDA Team Nutrition reported more healthy offerings and preparation than private or non-participating schools, respectively. Elementary schools reported less unhealthy offerings than middle or high schools; middle schools reported less unhealthy offerings than high schools. Schools requiring foodservice managers to have a college education reported more healthy preparation while those requiring completion of a foodservice training program reported less unhealthy offerings and more healthy preparation than schools without these requirements. Conclusions and Implications Results suggest the school nutrition environment may be improved by requiring foodservice managers to hold a nutrition-related college degree and/or successfully pass a foodservice training program, and by participating in a school-based nutrition program, such as USDA Team Nutrition.

WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative: School Nutrition Environment and Body Mass Index in Primary Schools

“…Secondly, although not validated, the five selected nutrition-related characteristics were graded with the same weight (0 or 1), which is not an uncommon approach. For instance, Thomson et al also did not give different weights to the yes/no responses of the “healthy/unhealthy” foodservice offerings items [ 27 ]. Like in our approach, they coded the availability of “healthy” offering items with a “1” and the availability of “unhealthy” offering items with a “0”, so that higher scores corresponded to higher occurrence of healthy practices.…”

“…A score of 0 or 1 was given to each answer on these five characteristics that could be obtained on the school premises: “ fresh fruit ”, “ milk ”, “ cold drinks containing sugar ”, “ sweet snacks ” and “ salted snacks ”. This grading was done according to the potential influence a school characteristic might have (to our best knowledge from literature) on the risk of excess body weight in children or its support to a healthy school environment [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. An answer was graded with 1 when it was considered supportive to a healthy school nutrition environment (presence of fresh fruit and milk; absence of cold drinks containing sugar, sweet snacks and salted snacks) and with 0 when it was considered unsupportive to a healthy school nutrition environment (absence of fresh fruit and milk; presence of cold drinks containing sugar, sweet snacks and salted snacks).…”

K‐12 School Food Service Staff Training Interventions: A Review of the Literature

“…Appropriate and adequate training and education for school food service professionals may be one key to meeting USDA school meal guidelines and providing healthier meals overall . School food service programs with directors that have a nutrition related degree, have completed additional food service training, or work with nutrition education programs like Team Nutrition, are more likely to serve healthier meals in general . In addition, meal programs with certified food service program directors are more likely to adhere closely to nutrition policies in practice .…”

Registered dietitians in school nutrition leadership and dietetic students' consideration of school nutrition

“…Of the surveyed schools, 51.9% participated in Team Nutrition, with over 75% of the schools requiring at least a high school diploma for newly hired foodservice managers. The surveyed schools with the healthiest meal preparations had a college educated manager (Thomson et al, 2012).…”

“…Generation Y as hospitality employees: Framing a research agenda. Journal ofHospitality and Tourism Management, 15, 59-68. doi: 10.1375/jhtm.15.4.59 Thomson, J., Tussing-Humphreys, L.,Martin, C., LeBlanc, M., & Onufrak, S. (2012). Associations among school characteristics and foodservice practices in nationally representative sample of United States Schools.…”