(2017)

Peacock Scholarship

HOW DOES THE HEALTHY HUNGER-FREE KIDS ACT IMPACT TENTH GRADE STUDENTS' BODY MASS INDEX IN AN URBAN SECONDARY SCHOOL

Public Deposited

Abstract

The National School Lunch Program has been aiding the feeding of children in schools since 1946, at a time when children were found to be underweight. Since the program’s inception, there was a continuous rise in childhood obesity until recently, when it leveled off. More than a third of children are still considered obese, which is concerning for our Nation. The NSLP feeds millions of children each day, and changes to the nutritional standards were implemented in 2012 under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The standards were put into place to serve children more nutrient dense foods while in school. The study was designed to see if there is a relationship between tenth graders body mass index percentiles and the implementation of the new lunch standards. The researcher also examined if there was a relationship between the implementation of the new lunch standards and the students categorized as free, reduced, or paid lunch. The tenth-grade students' BMI percentiles were analyzed using the independent sample t-test in a quantitative study design. Findings showed that the implementation of the new lunch standards had an insignificant relationship to tenth grade students' BMI percentiles overall as well as when students were categorized by lunch status

Last modified