Although reported student satisfaction with breakfast and lunch could be improved,6 school meals provide an important contribution to the daily FV intake among ethnically diverse, low socioeconomic status children. School meals offered through the School Breakfast Program (SBP)7 and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)8 make fruits and vegetables available to children from low-income households at a free or reduced rate. In 2006, the NSLP provided nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunch to more than 30 million school children.8 It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that the NSLP and SBP are a particularly important source of nutrients for school-age children from low-income families and state that the nutrition goals of the NSLP and SBP should be supported and extended through school wellness policies that enable students to develop lifelong healthful eating habits.9 In three school-based interventions, the lunch meal accounted for approximately 15% to 30% of the total daily intake of fruits and vegetables among school-aged children.10-12 Recent research conducted by the Food and Nutrition
Service of the United States Department of Agriculture suggests that elementary school participants in the NSLP were more likely than nonparticipants to consume fruit juice at breakfast and consume at least 1 vegetable at lunch.6 This study provides further examination of the importance of school meals within a specific population believed to be at increased risk
for inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables. This investigation examines the contribution of NSLP and SBP to FV intake between male and female fourth to sixth grade students using data from an ethnically diverse, primarily low-income sample of public elementary school children within an urban area in the United States.