Nutrition as the Foundation for Good Health: Evaluating the Impact of Food Programs on Health

Introduction: Previous studies have demonstrated a link between food insecurity and childhood behavioral problems. Burlington Children’s Space (BCS), a local preschool and daycare in Burlington, VT, created a meal program for children, many of whom are food insecure. The goal of this study was to demonstrate that providing a healthy meal program at school would reduce the amount of internal behavioral problems seen in children who are otherwise food insecure.

Methods: The parents of 25 children at BCS agreed to enroll their children in our study. The USDA Food Insecurity Module, completed by parents, was used to ascertain household food insecurity. Child and Adult Care Food Program eligibility was also collected as a secondary measure of food insecurity. Teachers at BCS used the Childhood Behavior Checklist to assess the children’s behavioral problems. Independent samples t-tests were used to compare behavioral problems between the food secure and food insecure groups.

Results: Food insecurity as reported by parents, was consistent with eligibility for state-administered free and reduced lunch programs. Despite the small number of participants (n=25), T-tests identified significant differences (p < .05) between the food secure and food insecure groups for external behavioral problems (43.9 vs. 51.8) and total behavioral problems (41.4 vs. 49.0. However, statistical differences were not seen for internal behavioral problems.

Discussion: Our results indicate that a school nutrition program that provides balanced and healthy meals to every student, may mitigate the increase in internal behavioral problems expected to be observed among children from food insecure families.