The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010 made sweeping changes to school nutritional standards. We estimate the impacts of shifts in school nutritional standards on dietary quality as well as dietary quantity of children’s food intakes from school and away-from-school food sources. We find the average effect of consuming school food, rather than away-from-school food, on children’s overall dietary quality significantly increased from the pre- to post-HHFKA implementation period. This effect was solely driven by substantial improvements in the dietary quality of foods acquired at school, mainly among older and higher-income children. Our indirect effect analysis indicated that children shifted towards consuming lower-quality diets at home in the post-HHFKA period, thereby partially offsetting the positive effects of the HHFKA on their overall dietary quality. Indirect impacts were primarily driven by a subset of children consuming more than a third of their daily calories from school food. Additionally, we find suggestive evidence of a modest decrease in daily calorie intake, particularly among older and higher-income children. Together, our findings imply that the HHFKA, despite its unintended negative indirect effects, led children to consume more-nutritious, less-energy-dense diets.

2010 年《健康、无饥饿儿童法案》(HHFKA) 对学校营养标准进行了彻底改变。我们估计了学校营养标准的变化对膳食质量以及儿童从学校和校外食物来源摄入食物的膳食数量的影响。我们发现，从 HHFKA 实施之前到之后，食用学校食品（而不是校外食品）对儿童整体膳食质量的平均影响显着增加。这种影响完全是由于在学校获得的食物的膳食质量大幅改善所致，主要是年龄较大和收入较高的儿童。我们的间接效应分析表明，在 HHFKA 后时期，儿童转向在家中摄入较低质量的饮食，从而部分抵消了 HHFKA 对他们整体饮食质量的积极影响。间接影响主要是由一部分儿童从学校食品中消耗每日三分之一以上的热量造成的。此外，我们发现每日卡路里摄入量适度减少的暗示性证据，尤其是年龄较大和收入较高的儿童。总之，我们的研究结果表明，尽管 HHFKA 会产生意想不到的负面间接影响，但它会导致儿童摄入更有营养、能量密度更低的饮食。