Clare Cho’s research while affiliated with The Ohio State University and other places

This report examines the growing availability of food away from home (FAFH), presenting research on food choices and availability; nutrition and diet quality; and food policies, including menu labeling and food assistance programs. It also examines how FAFH choices relate to diet quality and sociodemographic characteristics.

Providing children with nutritious after-school snacks as part of an after-school enrichment program can promote healthy diets and improve food security of at-risk children. However, in 2010 only 27% of schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) also offered the after-school snack component of the program, making it available to only a minority of American schoolchildren. We investigate school and district-level characteristics associated with the likelihood of a school offering the program. Schools more likely to offer the program serve mainly low-income students and are located in urban, high-poverty districts. Elementary schools are the most likely to offer the program and high schools the least likely. Further investigation of the factors influencing availability of after-school snacks would assist child nutrition program staff, policymakers, and child nutrition advocates to assess needs and target efforts to encourage schools to offer NSLP snacks.