Study by University of Washington sheds light on the transformative impact of Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).
Findings from a promising new study show universal free school meals could be an excellent tool in reducing childhood obesity and improving health outcomes. The study, conducted by Dr. Jessica Jones-Smith and PhD Candidate Anna Localio from the University of Washington’s School of Public Health, tested the impact of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) policy. This policy provides free school breakfast or lunch to over 40% of US public schools and nearly 20 million students. CEP and similar policies have huge implications for health because “Providing children with nutritious meals can positively impact them throughout the life course,” said Localio.
“Universal free school meals are important because they eliminate the paperwork required for both schools and parents to maintain eligibility for free meals,” said Jones-Smith. The removal of paperwork can make it easier for low-income students to receive at least one nutritious meal free of charge. “They also provide free meals to children with slightly higher income [which] in effect [can] decrease the stigma around receiving free school meals, because now everybody at a school is able to get a free school meal,” said Jones-Smith.
“Universal free school meals are important because they eliminate the paperwork required for both schools and parents to maintain eligibility for free meals. They also provide free meals to children with slightly higher income [which] in effect [can] decrease the stigma around receiving free school meals, because now everybody at a school is able to get a free school meal.”
-Dr. Jessica Jones-Smith
The study compared obesity prevalence from 3,531 low-income California public schools which participated in universal free school meals to schools who were eligible for them but chose not to participate. The researchers tracked data from 2013 to 2019 from 5th, 7th and 9th grade students. “We used a novel difference in differences approach that accounted for staggered policy adoption. This allowed us to look at effects by years of policy adoption, which gives us more information about the policy’s effects over time,” said Localio. Their methods showed an overall 2.4% relative reduction in childhood obesity prevalence compared to nonparticipating schools. “Our research adds to growing evidence showing that CEP is associated with improvements in child wellbeing, in academic performance and in health,” said Localio.
Though their paper currently focuses on data from California schools, Jones-Smith and Localio plan to expand their research to look at a variety of different data sources. “We are looking at schools nationwide, we’re also looking at lower income federally-qualified healthcare clinics and electronic medical records from children attending those clinics to get more generalizable findings.” They also plan to examine the effects of universal free school meals on blood pressure, on which Localio is currently writing her dissertation, and mental health status for children. In addition, the project will examine potential mediators of the relationship between free school meals and BMI, such as family stress and food insecurity. Finally, “We want to know who this policy is working well for and who it might not be working that well for,” said Jones-Smith. Additionally, “We’re interested in whether there are variations in the impacts of this policy by income, by race and ethnicity and by rural and urban status of kids and schools,” said Jones-Smith.
Research like this sits at the intersection of social safety net policy and nutrition policy. Social safety net policies “provide a potentially health-promoting good or service for free and make it easier for families to [access] them,” said Jones-Smith. These findings come at a critical time as many states are considering policies like CEP and others are discontinuing free meals that were made available during the pandemic. “My hope is that this publication leads to policy makers around the country considering universal free meals as a potentially health-promoting policy, and one that might alleviate health disparities since it is targeted more toward lower-income children,” said Jones-Smith. The effects of universal free school meals have the potential to positively affect children for a lifetime. “Children eat up to two meals a day, 5 days a week at school. Serving nutritious meals in schools that are free of charge has the potential to improve population health,” said Localio.