- (Focus Area) Health
Outside interviewed Nutrition Policy Institute researcher and physical activity expert Hannah Thompson for a March 31, 2024 article, “School Fitness Testing Is a Nightmare. Should We Get Rid of It?” In the article, Thompson addresses why cardiovascular fitness is a better predictor of children's future health than body mass index, which is commonly known as BMI. “Even in the ‘overweight' category, BMI is not necessarily predictive of poor metabolic health. Cardiovascular fitness is.” Her interview provided context to recent changes in school...
- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
- Editor: Wendi Gosliner
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
During the first two years of the pandemic, the federal government enacted waivers to allow school meals to be offered to all students at no cost to families. In July 2021, California and Maine became the first states to authorize permanent universal school meals, mandating free school meals to combat food insecurity and improve students' physical and academic health. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 key stakeholders between December 2021 and June 2022 to explore the factors contributing to the passage of school meals for all legislation in each state. The stakeholders interviewed included...
National Public Radio's Shots health news interviewed Nutrition Policy Institute's Hannah Thompson on a 2022 study that showed that letters home from school on childhood obesity had no effect on student weight. The interview was featured in an April 9, 2024 NPR article titled “Arkansas led the nation sending letters home from school about obesity. Did it help?” Thompson is quoted, "It's such a tiny-touch behavioral...
A new research brief developed by the Nutrition Policy Institute highlights promising school-based CalFresh Healthy Living—California's SNAP-Ed program—physical activity interventions. The study used latent class analysis to describe the predominant combinations of CFHL physical activity interventions implemented in California public schools in partnership with local health departments. Using Fitnessgram data from over 440,000 students in nearly 4,300 schools, the researchers assessed whether intervention combinations were associated with student cardiorespiratory fitness, as measured by V02 max. The study found that students in...
Increasing participation in school meal programs can improve dietary quality and reduce nutrition insecurity. School food service directors have indicated an urgent need for marketing materials encouraging school meal participation. Nutrition Policy Institute will partner with Anna Grummon of Stanford University to develop and evaluate a marketing campaign to increase school meal participation. The evaluation will help to determine the school meal messaging that most resonates with parents. The two-year