Study: Kids Will Eat Healthy School Food

A student puts apple slices on his tray during lunch Monday, Nov. 19, 2007 at Central High School in St. Paul, Minn. A University of Minnesota study has found that school lunch sales don't decline when schools serve healthier meals and that more nutritious lunches don't necessarily cost schools more to produce. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) (Jim Mone - AP)

The study also pointed out that school districts are allowed to charge their lunch programs for indirect costs such as electricity or janitorial services for their cafeterias. The authors said that can be abused by cash-strapped districts charging their lunch programs high overhead; they recommended tighter limits on those charges.

Dr. Sandra Hassink of Wilmington, Del., a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Obesity Task Force, said that was an important finding. She said money allocated for nutritional programs should be spent on nutrition.

Alice Jo Rainville, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at Eastern Michigan University, noted that school nutrition programs have improved because of federal policy changes enacted in 2004, the last year included in the study.

Rainville said results in other states might not match those in Minnesota, but Senauer said he believes the situation is similar across the country.

"Everything we've done here, there's good reason to believe it's happening nationally," he said.

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On the Net:

National School Lunch Program: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch

School Nutrition Association: http://www.schoolnutrition.org/