Policy Legislation and Nutrition: What Works to Improve Student Health?, a new project led by the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition and the Washington Department of Health, will examine the effects of school nutrition and physical activity policies recently mandated by state law. SB 5436 requires all public school districts to develop nutrition and physical activity policies, and requires districts participating in the national USDA School Meal Program to have a wellness policy.

(WSSDA's model policy on fitness and nutrition is available in the Policy and Legal Services section.)

The PLAN study will examine the development, content, implementation and enforcement of school nutrition policies, with the goal of determining how such policies change the school nutrition environment and students’ diets.

During the current academic year, PLAN will ask 64 participating schools to provide their district nutrition and physical activity policy and procedures and to complete 20-minute phone interviews about the policy development process. The following year, PLAN staff will visit the same schools, where they will collect information on the foods available and have seventh-graders complete a 10-minute anonymous dietary survey.

PLAN is currently recruiting schools with seventh-grade students. Each participating school will receive information about the diets of their own students and aggregate data from the other schools. School names will not be used in any public reports. Overall findings will be distributed so that schools and policymakers can implement the best policies and practices for improving student health.

PLAN is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program. School directors Patti Ensor (Davenport) and Russ Lehman (Olympia) and College Place Superintendent Tim Payne are serving on PLAN’s advisory committee.

If your district is interested in participating in this study, please contact Anne Lund, RD, MPH, at 206/221-4920 or AEL4@u.washington.edu.