NSBA Releases New Publication on Food Safety in Schools

May 1, 2008 - Did you know that each year as many as 76 million people in the U.S. experience a foodborne illness, which result in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths? Did you know that about 3% of the foodborne illness outbreaks reported nationwide between 1990 and 1999 occurred in schools and that approximately 6% of the U.S. student body has a significant food allergy, which may put them at risk for a potentially life-threating allergic reaction?

Millions of children attend schools in the U.S. each day. Schools do not only offer foods in their cafeteria, but in extra-curricular activities, and children also bring food from their homes. Within that context, if a school does not have food safety policies and practices in place, a significant crisis could occur. Foodborne illnesses can have both health and monetary consequences within the school and the community. They can jeopardize the school’s image and cause students and staff to miss important school days.

With this in mind, the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) School Health Programs Department recently released “Eating Safely at School: What Education Policymakers Need to Know and Do To Prevent and Respond to Food-Related Illness in Schools.” The book is designed to help school district policymakers not only better understand what foodborne illnesses or food allergies are, but also navigate the process of creating and establishing food safe policies in order to prevent costly, debilitating foodborne outbreaks and be able to respond quickly and effectively should one occur.

The book demonstrates that effective food safety policies and practices require the involvement of both district- and school-level teams. It also shows that the Child and Nutrition WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 lends particular relevance to having such policies. Implementing these policies demonstrates school board members’ commitment to promoting and safeguarding a healthy school environment.

The book lists components of a food safety policy, includes valuable informational resources, provides sample policy language, and includes a School Food Safety Policy Checklist that can be used to assess a district or school’s policy status. Download the book here.

Source: "Eating Safely at School: What Education Policymakers Need to Know and Do To Prevent and Respond to Food-Related Illness in Schools," Eva Marx, National School Boards Association, 2008. The statistics provided in the first paragraph of this article are included in the book and were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

*Eating Safely at School was made possible with full support from a cooperative agreement (U87/CCU323734-02) with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health.