Two-thirds of Ohioans support a universal free school breakfast and lunch program for all public school children, according to a Republican research firm.

“This is extremely rare in a time where voters are really reluctant to support further spending, either at the state or federal level,” Alexi Donovan, vice president of Tarrance Group Polling, said Monday during the monthly meeting.

This month’s meeting heard testimony on the importance of universal school meals and Tarrance Group Polling surveyed 600 Ohio voters about this topic in May.

“It is clear from the research and the data over the years, universal school meals help students thrive, physically, mentally, socially and educationally,” said John Stanford, director of Children’s Defense Fund–Ohio.

In Ohio, 1 in 6 children, or about 413,000 kids, live in a household that experiences hunger. Despite that, more than 1 in 3 children who live in a food insecure household do not qualify for school meals, according to a from Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio.

“We believe that in a country as wealthy as we are, we should not have hungry children,” said Lisa Quigley, director of .

Exposing students to various fruits and vegetables through school meals helps them get a taste for “food that’s far more nutritious than what a lot of them are bringing to school,” she said.

“What we’re finding in the schools that are doing universal school meals, the food is getting better,” Quigley said.

National security

Children’s hunger is a national security issue, said Cynthia Rees, Ohio’s director for the Council for a Strong America.

The that found 77% of young people between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service without a waiver. The most prevalent disqualification rate was for being overweight at 11%, above drug and alcohol abuse (8%) and medical/physical health (7%).

“It is critical to recognize that overweight and obesity can often be manifestations of malnutrition, food insecurity or the lack of access to affordable healthy foods often result in consuming cheaper and more accessible food, which often lack nutritional value,” Rees said.

The food insecurity rate for Ohio children is 15%, with some counties having rates up to 24%, Rees said.

“Increasing children’s access to fresh and nutritious food now, including through free school meals for all students, could help America recover from the present challenges and bolster national security in the future,” she said. “The military has a long standing interest in the health and nutrition of our nation’s youth.”

Universal school meals would eliminate the stigma of categorizing students who receive free and reduced meals and those that don’t, Rees said.

“Instead, all students can just have a meal together,” she said. “When we make school meals accessible to all, we remove that stigma.”

Ohio legislation

Last year’s budget bill allowed any student who qualified for free or reduced school breakfast or lunch got those meals for free during the 2023-24 school year.

Currently in Ohio, children are eligible for free or reduced school meals if their household income is up to 185% of the federal poverty line, which is $57,720 for a family of four, according to the .

State Reps. Darnell Brewer, D-Cleveland, and Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, introduced a bill earlier this year that would require public schools to provide a meal to any student that asks.

would also ban a district from throwing away a meal after it was served “because of a student’s inability to pay for the meal or because money is owed for previously provided meals.” The has only had sponsor testimony so far in the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on and .

School meals are critical to child health. Research has shown that than meals from other sources, such as meals brought from home.

A recent study that one of us conducted found the quality of school meals has steadily improved, especially since the 2010 strengthened nutrition standards for school meals. In fact, by 2017, another study found that school meals provided the of any major U.S. food source.

Many American families became familiar with universal free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ease the financial and logistical burdens of the pandemic on families and schools, the that allowed schools nationwide to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. However, these by the 2022-23 school year.

Since that time, there has been a substantial increase in schools participating in the , a federal policy that allows schools in high poverty areas to provide free breakfast and lunch to all attending students. The policy became available as an option for low-income schools nationwide in 2014 and was part of the . By the 2022-23 school year, had adopted the Community Eligibility Provision, an increase of more than 20% over the prior year.

We are study the health effects of nutrition-related policies, particularly those that alleviate poverty. Our newly published research found that the Community Eligibility Provision was associated with a net .

Improving the health of American children

President Harry Truman in 1946, with the stated goal of protecting the health and well-being of American children. The program established permanent federal funding for school lunches, and participating schools were required to provide free or reduced-price lunches to children from qualifying households. Eligibility is based on federal poverty levels, both of which are .

In 1966, the piloted the , which provides free, reduced-price and full-price breakfasts to students. This program was later made permanent through an amendment in 1975.

The was piloted in several states beginning in 2011 and became an option for eligible schools nationwide beginning in 2014. It operates through the national school lunch and school breakfast programs and expands on these programs.

The policy allows all students in a school to receive free breakfast and lunch, rather than determine eligibility by individual households. Entire schools or school districts are eligible for free lunches if at least 40% of their students are directly certified to receive free meals, meaning their household participated in a means-based safety net program, such as the , or the child is identified as runaway, homeless, in foster care or enrolled in Head Start. Some states also .

The Community Eligibility Provision increases school meal participation by associated with receiving free meals, eliminating the need to complete and process applications and extending access to students in households with incomes above the eligibility threshold for free meals. As of 2023, the eligibility threshold for free meals is 130% of the federal poverty level, which amounts to US$39,000 for a family of four.

Universal free meals and obesity

We analyzed whether providing universal free meals at school through the Community Eligibility Provision was associated with lower childhood obesity before the COVID-19 pandemic.

To do this, we measured from 2013 to 2019 among 3,531 low-income California schools. We used over 3.5 million body mass index measurements of students in fifth, seventh and ninth grade that were taken annually and aggregated at the school level. To ensure rigorous results, we between schools that adopted the policy and eligible schools that did not. We also followed the same schools over time, comparing obesity prevalence before and after the policy.

We found that schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision had a in obesity prevalence compared with eligible schools that did not participate in the provision. Although our findings are modest, even small improvements in obesity levels are notable because effective strategies to reduce obesity at a population level . Additionally, because obesity racially and ethnically marginalized and low-income children, this policy could contribute to reducing health disparities.

The Community Eligibility Provision likely reduces obesity prevalence by substituting up to half of a child’s weekly diet with healthier options and simultaneously for low-to-middle-income families. Families receiving free breakfast and lunch save approximately $4.70 per day per child, or $850 per year. For low-income families, particularly those with multiple school-age children, this could result in meaningful savings that families can use for other health-promoting goods or services.

Expanding access to school meals

Childhood obesity the past several decades. Obesity often to a range of .

Growing research is showing the benefits of universal free school meals for the health and well-being of children. Along with our study of California schools, other researchers have found an association between universal free school meals and reduced obesity in , and , as well as among and school districts in .

Studies have also linked the Community Eligibility Provision to and .

While our research observed a reduction in the prevalence of obesity among schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision relative to schools that did not, obesity increased over time in both groups, with a greater increase among nonparticipating schools.

Universal free meals policies may slow the rise in childhood obesity rates, but they alone will not be sufficient to reverse these trends. Alongside universal free meals, identifying to reduce obesity among children is necessary to address this public health issue.

As of 2023, universal free school meals policies. States such as California, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico have pledged to cover the difference between school meal expenditures and federal reimbursements. As more states adopt their own universal free meals policies, understanding their effects on child health and well-being, as well as barriers and supports to successfully implementing these programs, will be critical.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

COLUMBIA — Recess would be required for elementary and middle school students in a proposal attempting to decrease childhood obesity rates.

The bill discussed by a House panel Tuesday would mandate at least 20 minutes of outdoor play every school day for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It would also double the time sixth- through eighth-graders must spend in structured physical education classes, from 30 hours to 60 hours for the year.

The goal, said bill sponsor Rep. Patrick Haddon, is to get students more physically active to reduce obesity rates.

Nearly 40% of students in the state were overweight or obese last school year, according to data collected through the .

“This is a big problem that’s been in the making for some years now,” said Haddon, R-Greenville.

In nearly half the state’s public schools, students in second, fifth and eighth grades, as well as high schoolers, take the FitnessGram test to evaluate their general health and physical abilities. Those findings show childhood fitness has been falling, said Russell Pate, who leads a group at the University of South Carolina researching children’s physical activity.

During the 2022-23 school year, 54% of children received unhealthy scores on cardiorespiratory tests that involved running a mile and sprinting. When asked to do pushups to measure upper body strength, 44% of tested students needed improvement, according to the most recent report.

That makes for “a critical public health issue,” Pate told legislators.

When children don’t have time to play outside, they don’t learn how to play, said David Stodden, a professor of educational and developmental science at USC.

“If kids can’t play, they can’t use this equipment,” Stodden said, showing lawmakers a photo of a playground.

Not using the playground means losing valuable interactions with other children, hindering them socially, Stodden said. Plus, exercise boosts the parts of the brain used to learn other skills, such as reading and math, he said.

The proposal, however, could add stress to already overburdened schools and teachers, said Patrick Kelly, a lobbyist for the Palmetto State Teachers’ Association.

Schools have been enough teachers in all subjects, and physical education is no exception, Kelly said. Plus, the additional 30 hours of physical education it would mandate for middle schoolers would take time away from lessons in math, reading, science and social studies, he said.

“The legislation seeks to allocate the most valuable and scarce resource we have in our schools, which is the time that we have with our students,” said Kelly, who is also a Columbia-area high school history teacher.

More flexibility for schools struggling to meet those requirements would help, Kelly said.

While the panel of legislators did not vote Tuesday, they generally agreed they did not want to further burden teachers.

“The one thing that I don’t want to have happen is we implement something with the time (requirements), and we don’t have the structure and the personnel to actually make it happen,” said Rep. David Vaughan, R-Simpsonville.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on and .

According to the (CDC), nearly 13% of preschool children in the U.S. and 21% of 6- to 11-year-olds are classified as overweight or obese. Note: The CDC defines children’s weight status differently from adult Body Mass Index (BMI) categories. Because children’s body composition varies as they age and varies between boys and girls, the BMI levels in children and teens are expressed relative to other children of the same age and sex.  place underweight as less than the 5^th percentile of children of the same age and sex; healthy weight from the 5^th to less than the 85^th percentile; overweight as 85^th to less than the 95^th percentile; and obese as 95^th percentile or greater.

The (NIH) describes childhood obesity as the most challenging public health issue in the 21^st century, and is associated with increased morbidity and premature death. Children who are obese in childhood tend to stay obese into adulthood and face increased risk for diabetes, asthma, cardiac problems and issues such as low self-esteem and anxiety. The NIH paper, “” by James A. Levine, states that obesity-associated chronic disease accounts for 70% of U.S. health costs. The paper further states that halting the U.S. obesity epidemic and lessening its health costs “may require that the U.S. addresses poverty itself.”

Multiple environmental factors influence childhood obesity, but living in a low-income family and in environments and communities that don’t support healthful diets or physical exercise are two of the most substantial risk factors, according to the . Though the CDC recommends children eat healthy food and stay physically active, many children — especially those living in very low-income homes — don’t have ready access to either nutritious food or a place to play freely. According to the NIH, roughly 6% of the people in the U.S. live in a food desert, defined as a geographic area that lacks sufficient access to grocery stores. Economic and racial disparities persist across the U.S., with about 30% more non-white residents facing limited access to retail food outlets than their white counterparts.

Dahlin says early childhood programs can provide an important pathway to launch children on healthier trajectories. Program standards for most early childhood programs require that the children receive some information on nutrition and physical education, though how this information translates into daily interactions can vary from one program to another. Information alone won’t make much of a dent in the complex issue of childhood obesity; Dahlin says a web of approaches is required.

“You can’t just tell families, ‘Eat healthier things,’ if you aren’t addressing the systemic components that affect their health,” she says. “How accessible is food? Can families get there? Is it affordable? Do the children have access to play areas where they can run around, play and be children?”

“Food deserts are in low-economic status neighborhoods without grocery stores or even transportation. Sometimes families are working multiple jobs, so their work schedules make it extremely difficult to get to any type of store with fresh fruits and vegetables. They might have one child in child care and another in school, and they have to take a bus to get each of them. These people are incredibly busy and just trying to access food is challenging and time intensive.”

To solve these challenges, it may not be necessary to reinvent the wheel.

Enter Head Start. Authorized in 1965, Head Start is the longest running publicly funded early learning program in the U.S. It not only provides child care, but it also connects low-income families with the services they need to support their child’s development. Guided by the that was introduced in 2011, Head Start has fostered positive parent-child relationships, community connections and viewed parents as leaders and advocates.

“Head Start provides food when children are attending, and they connect families to resources to support food security outside program hours,” Dahlin says. “That’s essential for learning. Look at — if a child is hungry, they aren’t learning. The program also connects children with primary care providers, dental care and immunizations — all these things that promote good health.”

Head Start collects BMI () information on children in the program within 45 days of entry and uses the information to monitor the well-being of children whose BMI percentiles are in the underweight, overweight or obese range. The NIH considers BMI an economical method to assess body fat indirectly, though the measure has come under scrutiny in recent years because it was developed in the 1800s as part of a quest to determine an average weight for “the average (white, European) man.” The tool is often inaccurate in determining health in women and people of color and has been the source of medical discrimination and weight stigma.

“There has been a lot of understandable push back on using BMI as the metric for health, but we felt that BMI, collected by the programs, could serve as a useful proxy for understanding the effects of Head Start’s contribution to children’s nutrition and physical activity,” Dahlin says. “In the program, children develop food vocabulary and a knowledge base to understand the impact of nutrition and different foods on health. They learn where food comes from. They have consistent access to food, which is a really important takeaway. So, moving away from that one-size-fits-all BMI metric, it’s important that future research take more of a look at what it would mean for children to develop healthy behaviors and to look at that behavior change over time.”

For their study, Dahlin and Reich looked at administrative data from a large urban Head Start program in the Southwest that comprised 26 Head Start centers. Their sample was restricted to 1,120 children with at least two reports of BMI at the 85^th percentile or higher, at points at least 90 days apart. All the children identified as Latine (the researchers prefer the term Latine), their parents spoke Spanish as their primary language and nearly all families reported incomes that fell under the federal poverty level.

What the researchers found was that children in the sample saw a reduction in their BMI over the program year and children with a BMI in the severely obese range experienced a greater, statistically significant, reduction than children who entered the program as overweight or obese. Entry to Head Start at 3 years old predicted a greater reduction in BMI for each month the child was in the program than for children who started later. Having a sibling in the program and receiving a child care subsidy also predicted lower BMI per month.

As is often the case with research, the study created questions that beg more research.

“I think as we transition away from BMI as the measure, we want to consider other ways to measure these health outcomes,” Dahlin says. “We need a lot more qualitative work to understand folks’ experiences and how they interact with food. What are their experiences with some of these food security programs? How do we foster behaviors like positive relationships with food and what systems do we need to set up to make sure folks have access to and an ability to get affordable, healthy food regardless of where they live or how much money they make?

“The bottom line is that the Head Start program is an existing, comprehensive program that is already well set up and well-suited to make a difference in our country’s child health and overweight and obesity issues.”