John Burghardt

Dietary effects of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

In this paper we use 24-h dietary recall data to assess the dietary effects of participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). After adjustment for differences in characteristics between NSLP participants and nonparticipants, NSLP participation is associated with higher lunch intakes of vitamin A, calcium, and magnesium, and a lower intake of vitamin C. Although mean intakes of other key dietary components such as food energy, iron, cholesterol, and sodium are higher for NSLP participants than for nonparticipants, these differences appear to be due to underlying differences in unobserved characteristics (eg, food preferences, appetites, or food energy needs) rather than to the NSLP. Both at lunch and over 24 h, NSLP participation is associated with consumption of a higher percentage of food energy from fat and saturated fat. SBP participation is associated with higher breakfast intakes of food energy, calcium, riboflavin, phosphorus, and magnesium, and with a higher percentage of breakfast food energy from fat and saturated fat, and a lower percentage of food energy from carbohydrate.

The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study: summary and discussion.

This paper summarizes the key findings of the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study and discusses the implications for policy and practice in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). Reducing total fat offered in NSLP lunches to the amount set in the Dietary Guidelines, as called for in the proposed regulations published by the US Department of Agriculture in June 1994, would be facilitated by changing the legislative requirement to serve whole milk. In addition, the following menu choices and meal preparation methods would reduce considerably the amounts of fat in NSLP lunches: reducing the average meat serving from 2 to 1.5 oz; eliminating high-fat meats, high-fat cheese, nuts, and nut butters; eliminating high-fat desserts and milk-based desserts; and reducing sharply the use of added fats in food preparation.

Community case management for former jail inmates: Its impacts on rearrest, drug use, and HIV risk

Dramatically increasing incarceration rates in the United States have led to large concentrations of formerly imprisoned people in poverty-stricken urban areas. Therefore, identifying ways to belp inmates who exhibit multiple, serious problems and who are at great risk of experiencing poor postrelease outcomes is especially important to urban communities, as well as to service providers and policymakers concerned about these communities. Our research provides evidence about the effectiveneess of one strategy, called Health Link, which recruited adult women and adolescent men while they were incarcerated in a New York City jail and offered case management services during the especially challenging first year after release. About 1,400 participants who enrolled during a 3-year period were ramdomly assigned either to a group that was eligible for intensive discharge planning services and community-based case management services or to a group eligible for less-intensive discharge planning and no community-based services. We investigated whether the availability of these services reduced rates of drug use, HIV risk, and rearrest. Using data from interviews and bair analysis to measure impacts during a 1-year follow-up period after clients’ release from jail, we detected increased participation in drug treatment programs and weak evidence for reduced drug use. However, we did not observe reductions in rearrest rates orin activities with high risk of HIV infection. We conclude that a well-executed case management program can make modest differences in a few short-term outcomes of former inmates. However, the intervention did not lead to the hoped-for changes across a range of outcomes that would clearly indicate greater success in community reintegration or improved health.

Background of the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) are federally sponsored nutrition programs operating daily in the nations schools. The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study had three primary objectives: 1) to describe the nutrient composition of NSLP lunches and SBP breakfasts as offered to students, 2) to analyze the dietary intakes of students, and 3) to compare the dietary intakes of program participants with nonparticipants. This paper describes the school nutrition programs, discusses current program issues and policy concerns, and provides an overview of the study objectives and papers included in this journal issue.

School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study: overview of the study design.

The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study collected information from a nationally representative sample of schools and a nationally representative sample of students attending these schools. A total of 545 schools provided information about all meals served during a 1-wk period between February and May 1992, as well as information about school food service operations. Approximately 3350 students in grades 1-12 provided detailed information about the foods and beverages that they consumed during a 24-hr period that included a school day. To assess the content of both the school meals offered to students and the meals consumed by students, the study used dietary standards from three sources: the recommended dietary allowances, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and recommendations of the National Research Council.

Tightening income documentation in a means-tested program: who stays away?

Programs using means tests to identify low-income households face a trade-off between promoting access and ensuring program integrity. The authors use a comparison-district design to estimate the effects of a pilot program to improve the accuracy of the process of certifying students for free or reduced-price meals in the National School Lunch Program. This pilot program required households to provide income documentation with their applications for these benefits. Requiring income documentation did not reduce the proportion of ineligible households getting free or reduced-price meals. Furthermore, this requirement did reduce access to the program among eligible households.