Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
EdD Program for Educational Leaders
Advisor
Maryanne Roesch
Committee Member
Ann L. Barefield
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Committee Member
Claudia Santin
Keywords
ala carte sales, educational achievement, free or reduced-price meal benefits, health promotion, high school students, historical case study, lunch participation, meal prices, menu selections, nutrition, preventative health, Provision II, reduced-price meals, school meal programs, socioeconomic status, student participation, student lunch participation
Abstract
This applied dissertation is a historical case study targeted at the segment of a high school population who are eligible for free or reduced price meal benefits but do not take advantage of these benefits. The population to be studied is those students who take advantage of the free or reduced price benefits to which they are entitled less than 50% of the days that school is in session. Frequency of eating counts will be compared for the past 11 years in order to discern if the target population participation has changed over the years by programs designed to increase total student lunch participation. Frequency counts of the targeted population will be studied to discover if Provision II, meal service revamping or an increase in ala carte sales impacted this segment of the population.
An analysis of the data leads the researcher to conclude that meal prices, as well as environment and menu selections are not the keys to enticing those students who are eligible for free or reduced price meal benefits to take advantage of the benefits available to them. Ala carte sales resulted in small decreases in the participation of those eligible for reduced price meal benefits but did not affect the participation of those eligible for free meal benefits.