Analyzing the Association between Student Weight Status and School Meal Participation: Evidence from the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study

Abstract

Childhood obesity remains a pressing public health concern. Children consume a substantial amount of their caloric intake while in school, making the passage of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) in 2010 and the subsequent improvements to the school meal standards a key policy change. Using data from the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study, this paper seeks to re-examine the association between students’ (N = 1963) weight status and participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) since the implementation of these policy changes to determine whether, and how, this relationship has changed. After controlling for a wide array of student characteristics and school-level fixed effects, findings from the multivariate regression analyses indicate that usual participation in the school meal programs has no clear association with students’ weight status, which contradicts findings from earlier studies conducted prior to the passage of the HHFKA. These findings are discussed in relation to changes in the demographic composition of usual NSLP participants over time.