title: Nutritional comparison of packed and school lunches in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children following the implementation of the 2012-2013 National School Lunch Program standards.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Approximately 40% of children bring a packed lunch to school. Little is known about the quality of these lunches. This study examined the nutritional quality of packed lunches compared with school lunches for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children after the implementation of 2012-2013 National School Lunch Program standards.
  
  
  METHODS
  The researchers collected observational data for packed and school lunches from 3 schools in rural Virginia for 5 consecutive school days and analyzed them for macro and micro nutrients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 1,314 observations collected; 42.8% were packed lunches (n = 562) and 57.2% were school lunches (n = 752). Energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar, vitamin C, and iron were significantly higher whereas protein, sodium, fiber, vitamin A, and calcium were significantly lower for packed lunches than school lunches.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Packed lunches were of less nutritional quality than school lunches. Additional research is needed to explore factors related to choosing packed over school lunches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Electronic address: alisha@vt.edu.
authors.forename: Alisha R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Farris
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Misyak
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: Kiyah J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Duffey
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: George C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health Sciences, Center of Public Health Practice and Research, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hosig
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University, Negev, Israel.
authors.forename: Naama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Atzaba-Poria
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: Mary M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: McFerren
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
authors.forename: Elena L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Serrano
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D017028:Caregivers; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005522:Food Services / Q000592:standards; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006801:Humans; D062409:Lunch; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D009753:Nutritive Value; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012423:Rural Health; D012578:Schools, Nursery; D014768:Virginia
keywords: NSLP; children; nutrition; packed lunch; school lunch