- Hello, I'm Jamie Bussell, a Senior Program Officer
at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
and today I'm thrilled to be joined
by Dr. Mary Story from Healthy Eating Research,
a national program of the foundation's,
to talk about new data on school meals.
Hey, Mary.
- Hi, Jamie.
- It's great to see you.
We're thrilled to have the chance to chat with you today.
So thank you, Mary.
So Mary, 10 years ago, the United States
Department of Agriculture updated its school meal standards.
And we are out with new data, new research
on the impact of those changes
on kids' health and wellbeing.
And so I'd love, Mary, if you could talk to us
a little bit about some of the major findings
from this new research.
- So Jamie, this new research shows
that strengthening the nutrition standards really worked.
School meals are now healthier,
they're more nutritious than they were in the past.
And in the U.S., kids are really benefiting
from these changes.
They're having meals with less sodium,
less saturated fat, more whole grains.
And we also found, interestingly,
that serving healthier meals do not cost more money.
- Those are really important and convincing findings.
Thanks, Mary.
We know how important healthy diets are for our kids,
for their ability to develop and grow and learn
and of course, maintain a healthy weight.
So can you talk, Mary, specifically about
how the school meal standard changes are benefiting kids?
- Well, we have to look at how large these programs are.
30 million children in the U.S. participate in school lunch.
That's a lot of kids, so any kind of changes
to make the school lunches healthier
are gonna have a huge impact just in terms of reach.
And we found that two promising findings from the studies
were that health disparities are declining.
So all kids, regardless of school,
where they're at, or their background
are able to access the school lunch program
and the school breakfast program.
And secondly, students whose families
are really struggling to get enough food,
they're more likely to participate
in both school breakfast and school lunch.
So kids are getting healthier meals at school
and it's reaching the kids who are most at need.
- Mary, those are such important points,
especially when we think about elevating
the most important strategies
for addressing both hunger
and ensuring that all kids can grow up at a healthy weight.
So with that, Mary, can you talk specifically
about the impact of school meals
and the ability of kids and families
to really recover from the last 11 months?
- Yeah, the crisis has really elevated
the importance of school meals,
especially for children from families of low income
and kids of color.
And we really have to thank the school leaders
and school food service workers
that have really stepped up to really distribute, you know,
food to millions, healthy foods, to millions of families.
And a lot of this, it's all happening at the local level.
And one of the new studies underscores
how important it is to have strong school wellness policies
at the district and the state level
to really have healthy meals,
because it also really boosts participation rates
and kids really are benefiting from these changes
to have healthier meals.
- Mary, those are all great points.
I'm so glad you closed with really lifting up
all of those local heroes who are doing
some pretty extraordinary Herculean efforts
to ensuring that kids and families can still thrive
and access healthy school meals.
So with that, though, I'll just close by saying
that in addition, you know, our local heroes
can't do it alone.
They need smart policies, healthy standards,
and enlightened leadership at all levels of government.
So again, thank you Mary so much for being with us
and I very much look forward
to the next opportunity that I'll have to chat with you.
Have a great day.
- Thanks, Jamie.