Parents’ attitudes about a healthful school nutrition environment

Abstract

In collaboration with a Coordinated School Health Program in rural East Tennessee, researchers piloted a survey with a convenience sample of 450 parents of students in grades K‐8 to determine their attitudes about the school nutrition environment (SNE) and changes that were made to improve the dietary quality of school meals. Of 108 returned surveys, 93 were complete and analyzed.Notable findings showed that most parents surveyed agreed (60.1%) or strongly agreed (30.2%) that schools should place a high priority on ensuring that students have healthy foods at school. Also, most agreed (51.6%) or strongly agreed (23.7%) that schools should have written wellness policies that address the type of foods offered to children throughout the day. However, greater than half of parents surveyed agreed (43%) or strongly agreed (10.8%) that it was okay to sell foods such as cookies, chips, and candies for fundraisers. Further, less than 40% of parents agreed (29%) or strongly agreed (9.1%) that parents should not allow their children to bring “junk” food to school for snacks or in lunches.Overall, most parents were supportive of school‐initiated measures to improve the SNE. However, these results suggest that they may not fully understand the importance of their roles in supporting a healthful SNE. Educating parents on these roles may be important to sustaining recently implemented school wellness policies.