Voters’ Attitudes On School Nutrition

Findings from a national survey of registered voters, conducted by Hart Research Associates and American Viewpoint

Key Findings From This Survey

Americans express broad and  deep support for increasing federal requirements for the nutrition of meals served in schools  and  for increasing funding for the national school meals  program by  one  percent.  Despite  the  challenging political  environment,  in which  nearly half the public believes the government is already doing  too many things, this is  an  area of agreement  for many voters, including Republicans and  ideological conservatives who  are more likely to oppose  these proposals than support them.  This may be due in part to the fact that the vast majority of voters express concern about the state of children’s health today.

Voters are deeply concerned about the state of children’s health.

•  85% of voters say they are concerned about the state of children’s health in the United  States  today, including 51% who  are very concerned about this.  Just 13% say they are not concerned about this.

•  The  biggest problems with children’s health that people tend to see are kids spending too much time watching TV and playing video games (74% big problem*), not getting enough exercise (67%), and being overweight or obese (66%).   “Not getting healthy food in  the meals  they are served in  school” falls further down  the list, with 38% saying this is a big problem.

* Rating of eight, nine, or 10 on a zero-to-10 scale, in which “10” is very big problem and “0” is not a problem at all.

Three in five voters  favor increasing nutrition  standards  for school meals, and  the same proportion favor increasing funding for the school meals program by $135 million per year.

•  In a general sense, we currently are in an environment that is not particularly friendly to government involvement in people’s lives. Forty-five percent (45%) of the electorate say that the government is doing  too many things better left to businesses and  individuals, while  50% say government should be doing  more to help solve problems. Indeed, 56% of voters say that parents have the most responsibility for ensuring that the meals children receive  in schools are nutritious.

•  But attitudes about government involvement in the school  meals  program paint a different picture. Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters say government should increase nutrition requirements for school  meals to make these meals healthier for children. By comparison, 23% say  government should not increase requirements, because this will make meals more expensive and require additional funding.

•  And, by  better than two to one, voters favor a one  percent  annual increase of $135   million for the school   meals   program that  would help   schools   pay  for healthier  food  and   begin   making  improvements  in  cafeteria  equipment  and worker training.   Sixty-one percent  (61%) of voters favor this (including 43% who  strongly favor it), while  22% oppose  it.

•  Three in four (76%) Democrats favor this funding, as do 60% of independents. A  plurality (43%) of Republicans favor it  as  well, while 38% of Republicans oppose  it.

•  Even  those  voters who  say  government is currently doing  too many things are more likely to favor (44%) than oppose  (36%) this funding increase.

•  And, notably, support for this additional funding is  strong among parents  who have  children in public school  (55% favor) and  those  who  do not have  children under age 18 (62%).

Voters  give existing school meals a  mediocre rating when it comes to their nutritional content,  though  they  say in instances  when school meals are not healthy this is a big problem.

•  Fewer than one  in  four (23%)  voters says  that meals   served in  schools   are totally  or  mostly  healthy and   nutritious;  50%  say  they  are only   somewhat healthy,  and  16% say  they are not really that  healthy.   Parents  who   have children in public schools  are slightly more likely to say school  meals  are healthy (34%).

•  And  even  though 38% of voters initially say  that unhealthy school  meals  are a big  problem, 62% say that if they were to find out that school  meals  frequently are not healthy they would consider this a big problem.

Voters also strongly favor regulating  food served in schools  that is not part of the official school meals program.

•  Seventy-seven percent (77%) of voters favor requiring that candy, soda, chips, and   other  such   snacks   that  are  available  in   school   vending  machines  be replaced with juice, milk, and healthy snacks.

•  Seventy-eight percent (78%) favor requiring that all food sold  in cafeteria lunch lines   meet higher nutritional  standards,  even  those  that  are not part of the national school  meals  program.

These findings  are  derived  from  a  national  survey  of  1,007  registered  voters  conducted December 8 through 15, 2010, by Hart Research Associates and  American Viewpoint on behalf of the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods campaign. Respondents were contacted by telephone, including 150  who  were interviewed via  cell  phone.  An additional 102  voters who  are parents of public  school  students were interviewed, for a total of 359  such  respondents.   The results of the poll  are statistically representative of the opinions of voters nationwide, and carry a margin of  error  of  ±3.1  percentage   points  for  the  full   sample,  and   higher  margins  of  error  for subgroups of the sample. Other factors can increase the sampling error of the results.