Understanding alternate policy approaches for improving the school food environment

Abstract

Multiple calls for action emphasize the need for policy solutions to regulate the school food environment in the United States, especially the sales of competitive foods. Policy evaluation is an important step towards understanding and developing a strong policy solution including finding effective policy approaches. This study examines bills introduced through state legislation and characterizes the bill content for various policy approaches/designs. Based on Howlett's (2000) conceptualization, bill content was characterized to possess "substantive" and "procedural" features and also coded for the kind of governing resources (information, authority, treasure, or organizational resource) used for the effectiveness of the approach. We coded 43 bills passed between 2001 and 2003 from 50 states which addressed the regulations of competitive foods in schools. Most competitive food legislation has multiple substantive and process features. Authority (e.g., forming a task force) is the main governing resource in bills with procedural features, while monetary compensation or training is mainly used as a resource in bills with a substantive features. Results of the study will provide better understanding of how policy should be used to regulate the school food environment and the impact of such policy approaches on child health outcomes. Funded by USDA/ERS.