Promoting Healthy Eating at School

Strong relationships between community partners and key stakeholders in schools – administrators, teachers, food service staff, recess/lunch supervisors, custodians, students and parents – creates a foundation upon which farm to school programming can flourish. Cultivating trust includes demonstrating that farm to school values are aligned with the implicit and explicit values of the school culture. It may take work to clarify these values and help the school community understand the importance of healthy food and food education for students’ school experience.

• Focusing on School Culture to Strengthen Farm to School – A research brief by Shelburne Farms and Vermont FEED that explores the importance of school culture in successfully integrating farm to school programs. Major themes and recommendations are presented.

Wellness Policies

Developing a school wellness policy and implementation plan presents an opportunity for districts to specify values and practices for what food is offered, how and when food is served, and what food education will be provided.

• School Wellness Policy Best Practices for Policy Development, Implementation and Evaluation by OSPI is a toolkit designed to help schools implement the requirements of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Document includes examples of the great things schools across Washington are doing to improve nutrition and physical activity.
• Model Wellness Policy template by Alliance for a Healthier Generation has been thoroughly reviewed for compliance with federal standards and can make it easy for school districts to easily create a school wellness policy.
• USDA School Nutrition Environment and Wellness Resources includes various tools for developing a school wellness policy, and additional resources for assessment (i.e., conducting an initial needs assessment, monitoring implementation, and measuring the impact of a school wellness policy).

The Cafeteria Environment

The cafeteria is an important classroom where children can learn to develop healthy eating habits, nurture social relationships, and nourish their bodies in order to thrive. Research has shown that the cafeteria environment makes a difference in what students eat which, in turn, affects their physical well-being, academic achievement, and classroom behavior.

• Creating Cafeteria Environments that Promote Healthy Eating by the Whatcom Farm to School Support Team, 2017. This compilation of resources includes techniques, strategies and best practices for promoting healthy eating in school lunchrooms. It addresses many topics including scheduling and transitions, the physical design of the cafeteria, and behavior management.
• How Mealtimes Can Set the Stage for Better Learning, Behavior and Health in Children: Handouts for Schools developed by Montana Team Nutrition, 2011. These handouts provide rationale, mealtime philosophy, and best practices for creating a positive cafeteria environment.
• Re-thinking School Lunch – A Planning Resource is a planning framework from the Center for EcoLiteracy, 2010, that looks at all aspects of improving school meals including facilities, dining experience, and waste management.
• The Cafeteria: Creating a Positive Mealtime Experience by the American Occupational Therapy Assoc., 2013, considers features of the cafeteria classroom with regard to the therapeutic benefits for students with disabilities.
• Washington Smarter Lunchrooms Toolkit and The Smarter Lunchrooms Strategies both draw from research done at the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs. These resources present simple, low or no cost ways to modify cafeteria environments so students make healthier food choices, consume more, and reduce food waste. 

Healthy Lunchroom Design

Physical Design

There are many physical features of the school cafeteria structure to consider in creating a healthy eating environment.

• Healthy Eating Design Guidelines for School Architecture – A research tool by Tuang, T.T. et al, (Preventing Chronic Disease, 2013) with theory-based strategies for making school environments more conducive to healthy eating.
• A Cafeteria Designed for Me: How Ideo Helped the San Francisco Unified School District Redesign its Food System.
• Lunch’d – A video about implementing Smarter Lunchrooms strategies in school cafeterias.
• Washington Smarter Lunchroom Toolkit: Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice – Tools for implementing Smarter Lunchrooms strategies in school cafeterias.

Cafeteria Atmosphere

In addition to the physical structure of the cafeteria, there are other features of the physical environment that contribute to the overall atmosphere and affect students’ food choices and consumption in school cafeterias.

• Best Practices for Lunchroom Atmosphere – Strategies included on the Smarter Lunchrooms Scorecard
• Cafeteria Tables Can Change the Whole School Atmosphere by Carroll Seating, 2016
• Ideas to Make an Elementary Lunchroom Quieter by Annabelle Brown.
• The Cafeterias Are Alive with the Sound of Music by Cheyenne Meyer, 2016

Time to Eat

Allowing enough time for students to eat affects both the quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables they eat and the total quantity of food they eat. Ensuring that students are consuming enough nutrients, in turn affects academic achievement and school behavior. Adequate time for lunch also reduces food waste. Research has found that giving students 20-30 minutes of seated time (after they have received their meal) is adequate for eating lunch at a good pace.

• Lunch Time at School: How Much Time is Enough? Policy Brief, Seattle Public Schools.
• In School Cafeterias, a Longer Lunch is a more Healthful Lunch by Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 11, 2015

Breakfast After the Bell

Students often do not eat a proper breakfast, offered either by the school or by their parents, because of the rush to get to class on time. Offering a simple nutritious breakfast to all students after school has started, helps students concentrate throughout the day and perform better academically. Offering breakfast to all students ensures a solid foundation for the day, and reduces any stigma associated with breakfast before school in the cafeteria. In fact, many schools can fund free breakfast for all students with the federal “Community Eligibility Provision,” and most schools find that a successful breakfast program improves their whole meal program.

• Making Breakfast Part of the School Day: What’s the right alternative breakfast service model for my school? – This handout by the Food Research Action Center (FRAC) describes several breakfast after the bell models.
• Secondary School Principals’ Breakfast After the Bell Toolkit: Tips and Resources for a Successful Breakfast Program. This resource assists middle and high school principals with implementing breakfast after the bell models as a strategy to increase school breakfast participation. By FRAC and National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
• School Breakfast Program – Provides rationale, statistics, and best practices for expanding school breakfast participation, by FRAC
• School Breakfast: Start the Day Right – A school breakfast report by Action for Healthy Kids.

Recess Before Lunch

Recess Before Lunch (RBL) is just what it says – the students go to recess first and then eat lunch. Schools have found that by implementing RBL, students have decreased behavioral problems in the hall and lunchroom, are more settled upon returning to class, and consume more food (which results in less food waste). A variety of resources are available to provide guidance in establishing a new schedule, evaluating RBL, and overcoming barriers to the transition.

• Recess Before Lunch by Lance Fuller for the National Education Assoc. A short article presenting benefits and drawbacks to RBL, and advice for getting started.
• Recess Before Lunch by Peaceful Playgrounds. Research findings, podcasts, and how to implement RBL.
• Recess Before Lunch, A Guide for Success from Montana’s Team Nutrition program. A variety of information to assist schools in initiating RBL.
• Recess Before Lunch Can Mean Happier, Healthier Kids – An article by Education World discussing RBL with ideas for making the change.
• Recess / Recess Before Lunch Resources compiled by the USDA. A list of resources, which includes best practices, barriers and how to address them, and lessons from several districts that have studied the impacts of RBL.

Food Served at School Outside of Mealtimes

School Celebrations

There are a variety of ways that schools offer and serve food before, during, and after school hours. School celebrations are one opportunity for schools and staff to focus on healthy food choices and food education.

• Celebrate WELL toolkit – Classroom celebration ideas for making healthy eating fun and exciting.
• Healthy Birthdays, Celebrations, Holidays – Ideas for parents, teachers, and administrators for shifting the focus of school parties to healthy fun.
• Healthy Classroom Celebrations – A list of resources for celebrating special days in healthy ways.

Snacks Sold at School

Smart Snacks Standards are a federal requirement for any foods and beverages sold to students outside of the school lunch or breakfast program, including from school stores or snack bars, and fundraisers.

• A Guide to Smart Snacks in School, explains Smart Snacks Standards.
• Tools for Schools: Focusing on Smart Snacks, USDA webpage that provides additional resources.

Healthy Fundraisers

Finding ways to make school fundraisers more healthy is a concern for both school district administrators and parents. There are many ways raise money for schools and promote healthy choices at the same time.  

• Healthy Fundraising – This list of resources compiled by the USDA links to healthy fundraising ideas from districts around the country.
• A+ Fundraisers for High Schools: A guide to having a successful fundraiser while keeping your community healthy – New York City Healthy High Schools Initiative: This thorough guide presents lots of ideas for healthy, junk food-free fundraisers such as family dinner events, flea markets, fitness-based fundraisers, plant sales, and more. Resources, pricing and profit information, tips, and steps are provided for each idea.
• Fun Fundraisers – An example of school guidelines for healthy fundraisers by San Francisco Unified School District.
• Healthy Fundraisers – Tip sheet by Action for Healthy Kids.
• Healthy Fundraising Toolkit – A guide for schools, families, and community partners by Oakland Unified School District.
• Healthy School Fundraising Success Stories – Examples from schools that have implemented healthy fundraisers.

Reducing Food Waste & Waste Management

The strategies described above help increase the amount of fresh and healthy food students eat. The flip side is reducing the amount of food that is thrown away. Encouraging students to “take what they want and eat what they take,” is one of many strategies to reduce the amount of healthy food that goes to waste. Other strategies include cafeteria production efficiencies, reducing packaging, and establishing environmentally-friendly ways to manage waste in school cafeterias, rather than throwing everything in the garbage. Proper waste disposal and waste reduction are important lessons that students learn in the cafeteria. Raising awareness among students and parents about how to pack a waste-free lunch from home also helps reduce the tons of plastic garbage that can enter the school cafeteria waste stream.   

• Reducing Food Waste: What Schools Can Do Today – USDA infographic illustrating ways to reduce food waste in schools.
• Schools Strive for Waste Free Lunches – by Education World, 2010. Simple ideas for helping students reduce waste at school.
• Waste Free Lunches – Presents research, examples, and strategies for packing waste-free school lunches.
• What You Can Do to Help Prevent Wasted Food, USDA, 2016. This booklet presents ways schools can reduce, recover, and recycle food before it goes to waste.

Functional Waste Disposal Systems

Setting up a waste station in the cafeteria requires a commitment from a team of school staff. Factors to consider when setting up a system are: where the waste station is located, how the students access it, and how the flow of traffic moves through it. Employing older students to help younger students separate waste into correct bins is a way to increase student engagement with waste management in the cafeteria.

• Reducing School Cafeteria Waste – by Get Energy Smart! Now! 2010. Detailed ideas for setting up a waste station.
• Creative Solutions to Ending School Food Waste by USDA 2017.

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