A study by U-Arkansas researchers says a program that provides free fresh fruit and vegetable snacks to school children reduced obesity rates by 3 percentage points among elementary school pupils. The lead author, Yiwei Qian, says, “This is an important finding” because other studies did not assess the effect of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, one of USDA’s child-nutrition programs, on preventing excess weight gain. U-Arkansas says the state has some of the highest childhood obesity rates in the nation. The researchers said the fruit and vegetable snack program had a larger impact on obesity rates, and at a lower cost per student, than other researchers have estimated for obesity reduction.
The fruit and vegetable snack program, targeted to districts with high poverty rates, provides from $50-$75 per student per year. It is among child nutrition programs costing about $21 billion annually that are scheduled for renewal by Congress this year.
In related news, the New York Times reports on one tactic against childhood obesity that seems ineffective: so-called fat letters. A growing number of states monitor student weight and send updates home. A study of juniors and seniors in Arkansas “found that students whose families had received the letters showed no appreciable improvement in B.M.I. scores after two years, compared with those who had not been screened,” according to the Times. A similar outcome was reported in a separate study of younger students in California. The newspaper says 25 states weigh public school students to monitor obesity rates, and 10 of them, including Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, send letters to parents to share the information about their offspring.