School meals are critical to child health. Research has shown that school meals can be more nutritious than meals from other sources, such as meals brought from home.
A recent study that one of us conducted found the quality of school meals has steadily improved, especially since the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act strengthened nutrition standards for school meals. In fact, by 2017, another study found that school meals provided the best diet quality of any major U.S. food source.
