Farm to School & Farm to Fork

Food allergy affects up to 8% of children in the U.S. There is minimal research to date on food allergy policies that are currently in place in schools and the opinions of parents of children with food allergy on the effectiveness of or need for these policies.
Of the 289 parent respondents, 27.4% were unsure or felt school was unsafe for their child with food allergy.

The school food environment, defined as the services and policies regarding nutrition and the availability of food in the school and surrounding neighborhood, is particularly important given that students travel through the school neighborhood almost daily and that they consume a substantial proportion of their calories at school.

Most children do not consume the recommended number of fruits and vegetables, and their sugar intake from both foods and beverages far exceeds recommendations.1-3 These dietary patterns place children at risk for multiple medical problems, including obesity, certain cancers, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Children from low-income and racial and ethnic minority backgrounds face disproportionately high rates of obesity and often live in food deserts with limited fruit and vegetable access. They are also most likely to participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and consume both breakfast and lunch at school. More than 30 million children in the United States receive school meals daily through the federally funded NSLP. School meals offer superior nutrition, compared with meals brought from home, particularly for low-income children. Yet, despite improved NSLP meal standards implemented under the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, children’s overall dietary intake remains suboptimal.