21st Annual Student Research Conference
School Breakfast: Are students making healthy choices?
Weslee Chew* and Mary Paradise
Dr. Carol Cox, Faculty Mentor
The School Breakfast Program (SBP) began in 1966 in order to provide breakfast for children in poor areas. Although participation in the SBP has doubled between 1987 and 1997, it is unclear whether children are consuming a well-balanced breakfast. The purpose of this study was to determine whether students were eating the complete SBP meal in order to obtain adequate nutrition. The subjects were middle school students in a rural Missouri school who received the SBP meal over three days each week for three weeks during Fall 2007. Using Meal Pattern Tally Forms, researchers observed meal items "not taken" for each student. Overall, it seemed that the students in this study consistently refused approximately 10% of their milk and grain/meat main menu items and about 40% of their fruit/vegetable servings. Consistently, more females than males did not eat the minimum servings of all food items over the 3-day period.
Keywords: SBP, School Breakfast
Topic(s):Health Science
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 35-4
Location: VH 1010
Time: 2:00