School meals provide a significant portion of children’s daily nutrition, and policies like the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, Community Eligibility Provision, and Healthy School Meals for All have improved access to healthier meals. However, variations in lunch period lengths and seated time may affect meal consumption, and the impact of state-level time-to-eat policies remains largely unknown. Although there is no national policy on lunch period length, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends students have at least 20-minutes of seated time to eat meals.
Nourish Lab’s latest research brief outlines an examination of how lunch period lengths, seated time, and free school meal policies are associated with school meal selection and consumption. Using a plate waste study of 7,027 meals across 20 elementary schools in four states, researchers measured lunch period lengths, seated time, and meal consumption over two days per school. Study findings show that students with longer lunch periods and more seated time consumed more milk, fruit, and whole grains. Further, the study found that most students with 20-minute lunch periods did not meet CDC recommendations for seated time. Students in higher-poverty Community Eligibility Provision schools had less time to eat and consumed less fruit compared with students in higher-income schools. Free school meal policies like HSMFA did not reduce consumption.
Study findings suggest that schools should schedule lunch periods longer than 20 minutes to ensure students have enough seated time to consume their meals, which can help reduce food waste. Policymakers should consider implementing or strengthening time to eat policies at the local, state, and federal levels to guarantee all students have sufficient time to eat the healthy meals provided.
This study was conducted by researchers Juliana Cohen, Maria Gombi-Vaca, Kennith Chui, Tara Cortez, Wendi Gosliner, Ashley Kesack, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, Marlene Schwartz, Elissa Carey, Amelia Geist, Sonja Holtey, and Leah Chapman. This research was funded by The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.