The Associations of Farm-to-School Programs on Childhood Obesity in School Breakfast

Farm to School (F2S) programs claim to increase fruit/vegetable consumption and promote healthy, lifelong food/beverage choices. Both of which are identified strategies in the prevention of childhood obesity. Long-term effects of F2S programs are largely unexplored. This cross-sectional study matched ten schools, five with F2S, and five with a traditional National School Breakfast Program (NSBP). Third- and fourth-grade students (n=1031) were recruited for study participation to assess the effects of regular breakfast consumption and participation in F2S programs on body mass index (BMI). Demographic data, anthropometric data, and frequency of breakfast participation were collected. Additionally, BMI and frequency of breakfast consumption over a ten-day period, excluding non-school days, was stratified by frequent eaters (7-10), occasional eaters (3-6), and skippers (0-2) were collected. Results showed no significant difference in BMI-for-age between F2S and traditional NSBP. This data suggests that in this population regular breakfast consumption was not correlated with BMI or BMI-for-age.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nutrition

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Brzozowski, Hannah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nicole Stendell-Hollis
• Dana Ogan
• Timothy Englund

• schools
• farm-to-school
• breakfast
• childhood obesity
• classroom breakfast.
• Education
• Medicine and Health Sciences

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/626

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1640