TABLE 4—
School Food Policies and Practices as Reported by Principals (n = 18) and Food Service Directors (n = 19) at 20 Secondary Schools
| Principal | Food Service Director | |
| School food policies | ||
| Any school policies about (yes; %) | ||
| Nutrition and food | 5.9 | 27.8 |
| Types of food sold in VMs | 16.7 | 16.7 |
| Types of food sold at school store | 0.0 | 14.3 |
| Teacher use of food as reward to students | 11.1 | 0.0 |
| Open campus during lunch (yes; %) | 31.3 | 26.3 |
| Food and beverage advertising | ||
| Food and beverage advertisements allowed (yes, %) | ||
| In cafeteria | 38.9 | 41.2 |
| Outside cafeteria | 33.3 | 38.9 |
| Food and beverage coupon distribution allowed (yes, %) | ||
| From food service | 27.8 | 73.7 |
| From outside companies | 23.5 | 22.2 |
| VM | ||
| Any school/district soft drink VM contracts (yes, %) | 70.6 | 78.9 |
| Number of VMs (mean, range) | ||
| Snack | 2.3, 0–5 | 2.2, 0–5 |
| Soft drink | 5.9, 2–12 | 5.3, 4–8 |
| Juice/water | 2.5, 1–7 | 3.5, 1–7 |
| VM hours | ||
| Soft drink (VM operation, %) | ||
| All hours (24 hours) | 37.5 | 41.2 |
| All hours except lunch | 37.5 | 29.4 |
| Before/after school only | 25.0 | 11.8 |
| Other combination of hours | 0.0 | 17.6 |
| Snack (VM operation, %) | ||
| All hours (24 hours) | 57.1 | 35.3 |
| All hours except lunch | 28.6 | 35.3 |
| Before/after school only | 14.3 | 11.8 |
| Other combination of hours | 0.0 | 17.6 |
| Nutrition-related school activities | ||
| Any meetings or work groups on school nutrition (yes, %) | 50.0 | 31.6 |
| Food sales allowed for student fundraising (yes, %) | 100.0 | NA |
| Teachers use food to reward students (sometimes/often, %) | 55.6 | 63.1 |
| How important is it to have a district/school policy on food and nutrition issues for the high school? (%) | ||
| Very important | 16.7 | 26.3 |
| Somewhat important | 44.4 | 63.2 |
| Neither | 16.7 | 10.5 |
| Somewhat/very unimportant | 22.3 | 0.0 |
| Who is involved in setting school food policy (% of respondents) | ||
| There are no food policies | 38.9 | 0.0 |
| Principal | 16.7 | 5.3 |
| Food service director | 61.1 | 21.1 |
| Kitchen manager | 38.9 | 5.3 |
| School board | 22.2 | 10.5 |
| Students | 5.6 | 0.0 |
| Food advisory group | 0.0 | 10.5 |
| School food environment: choose the statement with which you most agree (% of respondents) | ||
| ”Schools should provide both healthy and less healthy foods and let students choose” | 50.0 | 68.4 |
| ”Schools should provide mostly only healthy foods” | 50.0 | 31.6 |
| School food service financing | ||
| Does the state or district provide monetary support to food service? (% of respondents) | ||
| Don’t know | 27.8 | 0.0 |
| State provides | 22.2 | 16.7 |
| District provides | 5.6 | 0.0 |
| State and district provide | 22.2 | 0.0 |
| Food service is self-supporting | 22.2 | 83.3 |
| Should food service be financially self-supporting? (%) | ||
| Completely self-supported | 70.6 | 68.8 |
| Partially supported | 11.8 | 25.0 |
| Completely supported | 17.6 | 6.3 |
Note. NA = not applicable, VM = vending machine.