School Food: Increasing Emphasis on Childhood Nutrition

In the early 2000s, studies reported that the quality of childhood nutrition was a major factor in lifelong health and health care costs, with childhood obesity contributing to later incidence of diabetes and heart disease. Poor diet continued to be a risk factor in half of the leading causes of death in America. (Children who bring a lunch from home or who leave campus generally have meals that are lower in nutritional value than the cafeteria meals.)