The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program provide essential nutritional and academic benefits to millions of children. High participation in these programs will help universal free school meals in several states to be successful. A recent study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics aimed to identify which message topics most effectively motivate parents of elementary school-aged children to encourage their children’s school meal participation. Researchers interviewed 18 parents of school-aged children in states offering universal free school meals in spring 2024 to understand their reactions to varying message topics and designs. Messages highlighting convenience and cost savings were the most motivating for parents to encourage their children’s school meal participation, in addition to messages on the social and developmental benefits of shared meals. While parents who perceived school meals as healthy found nutrition-focused messages persuasive, others remained skeptical. Some parents were unaware that school meals were free, and overall, parents preferred concise, visually appealing messages supported by clear evidence or statistics. Future studies should examine whether messages emphasizing convenience, cost savings, social and developmental benefits, and evidence of healthfulness of school meals effectively increase participation. Additionally, studies could explore how parents’ demographic characteristics may influence their responses to these messages. The study was conducted by Amanda Zeitlin, Alix Zuceth Durán Gómez, Cristina Lee, Andrea Pedroza-Tobias, Anisha Patel, and Anna Grummon with the Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Christina Hecht and Kenneth Hecht with the Nutrition Policy Institute. This research was supported by a grant from Healthy Eating Research. Views here do not necessarily reflect the views of the funder.
