Effects of time, location for school breakfast participation

Participation in the subsidized U.S. School Breakfast Program has traditionally been unsatisfactory. Universally free breakfast service in the classroom has boosted participation but is not financially feasible for many schools. Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent participation under the standard cafeteria setting is hampered due to insufficient time to eat. A study published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics examines what happens to participation levels if the time of breakfast service is extended under a traditional cafeteria setting and pricing.

The researchers conducted a field experiment using different implementation modes for school breakfast to study the separate effects of time, fixed location, and place of implementation on participation and nutritional intake for third to fifth graders at three schools in Northern Nevada. The three experimental treatments were: original setup in the cafeteria, original setup plus 10 minutes of mandatory presence in the cafeteria, and in-classroom service.

The researchers found that even under a standard cafeteria setting and regular pricing, participation rates can be increased substantially (by approximately 20%) by allowing for more time to eat, in conjunction with an after-the-bell fixed location mandate. These findings are encouraging for schools that are unable to switch to universally free breakfast due to an insufficiently large share of fully subsidized students, as this mode can be implemented at relatively low costs, as long as the school cafeteria has sufficient capacity.

If universally free breakfast is financially feasible, the researchers found that classroom implementation boosted close to 100% participation on all days and at all three schools. The researchers noted that it would be interesting in future research to determine exactly what drives the sizable classroom-location effect they found for their sample. Even under the fixed-location cafeteria setting, participation rates were well below those observed for the classroom. A better understanding of this “pure classroom effect” may help to design cafeteria implementation that adopts some of these factors, possibly allowing for further improvements in participation under standard location and pricing.

The researchers also collected detailed data on nutritional intake, and found that, in total, neither treatment has a significant effect on consumption compared to the baseline.

Study