Children's Health

Parents: School Food OK

Aug. 17, 2007 - Nearly two out of three parents say school cafeteria lunches are nutritious, a USAToday/Gallup Poll shows.

There were no children among the national sample of 1,012 Americans interviewed by telephone on Aug. 3-5, 2007. But there were 244 parents of children in kindergarten to 12th grade. The results for the parents have a margin of error of plus or minus 7 percentage points.

Only 27% of the parents found school lunches not too nutritious or not nutritious at all. Eleven percent had no opinion, and 63% found the lunches very nutritious or somewhat nutritious.

Parents split more evenly over whether schools offer too many foods that should not be served to children. Just less than half -- 48% -- said their kids school did not offer too many inappropriate foods, while 43% disagreed.

But when asked whether schools should serve more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain breads, 66% of parents said "yes."

The poll did not ask the parents whether they would swap lunches with their kids.