A "healthy school meal environment" not only gives students opportunities to make healthy meal choices but also encourages them to do so. The extent to which a healthy school meal environment affects the success of USDA's school meals programs is currently a subject of debate. The policy...

A USDA Report to Congress found that "competitive foods"-those available in schools in addition to USDA-provided school meals-have lower nutritional quality than school meals. These foods may contribute to overconsumption of food energy, dietary fat, saturated fat, added sugars, and sodium, and...