Title: School food service directors' perceptions of dietary behaviors experienced by the nation's children and adolescents

Purpose- We assessed school food service directors' (SFSDs) perceptions of children's and adolescents' dietary behaviors.

Methods- A cross sectional study of the nation's SFSDs was conducted by distributing a mailed questionnaire to 500 SFSDs selected randomly from a sampling frame of 5,146 potential respondents provided by the School Nutrition Association. The response rate was 59.4% (n = 297); data was analyzed for the 259 SFSDs responsible for directing food services at the elementary, junior high school, and high school levels. The SFSDs estimated what percent of the nation's children experience selected dietary behaviors: Excess calories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, candy, junk food at home, junk food at lunch, junk food in class, junk food available in vending machines, sweetened beverages, and not enough fiber, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, calcium, or variety. SFSDs also estimated what percent of children experience anorexia or bulimia.

Results- Among the 19 items, over 80% of the SFSDs believed that eating too much junk food at home was a problem for more than 50% of children at all levels (elementary, junior high and high school). For virtually all of the behaviors, the respondents felt that the proportion of children affected by a given behavior increased from elementary school to junior high school; and for many of the items, the proportion increased further from junior high school to high school.

Conclusions: SFSD's opinions have been largely overlooked, yet they are in a unique position to offer perspectives on how to create healthier school environments.