Q&A with Bag the Junk Project Director Lisa Sharma Creighton

To mark the kick-off of our website, we asked Bag the Junk project director Lisa Sharma Creighton a few questions to get the real deal about what kids are eating at school.

Kids today don’t really eat that badly…do they?

Kid’s diets today are much worse than many people think. Chew on these facts: Research shows that the top sources of calories for school-age children and teens are pizza, desserts like cakes and cookies, and sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda and fruit drinks.[1] Given this, it’s not surprising that fewer than one in 10 high school students gets the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables per day, and that the average American teenager consumes the equivalent of 34 teaspoons of sugar per day.[2,3]

But are those types of foods and drinks really available to kids at school?  When I was in school we didn’t have vending machines or school stores.

Snack foods and beverages are widely available in U.S. schools. Recent surveys indicate that approximately 90% of high school students, 80% of middle school students and 65% of elementary school students could buy food or drinks outside of school meals through à la carte lines, vending machines, or school stores.[4,5] And what’s being sold is often high in calories, fat, sugar, and salt and contains little, if any, nutritional value. In fact, many middle and high schools maintain contracts with fast-food restaurants that allow the sale of branded fast-food products in school cafeterias.

Does having chips, cookies and sugary drinks for sale in schools really make a difference in kids’ diets? What about all the other stuff they are eating when they’re not in school?

Many children consume up to half of their daily calories at school, making the school environment an especially important location for modeling good nutrition. When schools sell unhealthy snacks and drinks, students eat fewer vegetables, drink less milk at lunch and consume more calories and saturated fat over the course of the day. Studies also show that selling unhealthy snack foods in schools is associated with higher body mass index — a measure used to determine if a person is overweight or obese — among students.

Wow. But what about money? I’ve heard that many schools sell candy and fast food to raise money for the band, choir and other extracurricular programs. Won’t switching to healthier options cause them to lose money?

That’s a common assumption. However, many school districts across the country are making the switch and finding that students will purchase and eat healthier fare. Studies show that school districts are not likely to see a decline in revenue and in some cases may collect more money when students purchase full meals from the school meal program instead of snack foods. Check out the NEA HIN Healthy Rewards fact sheet for more information on this topic.

Any tips for school employees for how to get started changing the food that’s sold in their school?

Before I answer that, I should point out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is slated to release proposed national nutrition standards for all snack foods and beverages sold in schools in early 2013. Since these national standards are expected to be minimum standards to serve as a starting point for schools, we encourage states and school districts to implement their own policies to further limit access to high-fat, high-sugar foods. To get started, I encourage you to spend some time on the bagthejunk.org website and check out some of the tools provided. NEA HIN created the website to help members of the school community act as informed champions for healthier school environments. Each page is chock full of useful information that will be updated frequently to reflect current news, trends, and thoughts from experts in the field.  And once you’ve started making changes, be sure to visit our “Share” page to share your story with the Bag the Junk community.