An analysis of students who moved through the Berkeley (CA) School District's School Lunch Initiative shows mixed results, according to an article in Grist. The School Lunch Initiative, which accompanied an overhaul of the district's school dining program into a scratch-based system, was designed to teach children about how food is grown and made with the expectation that this would lead to better and more healthful dining patterns as they got older. It includes school gardens as well as instructional kitchens.
However, the study, by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, seems to indicate that unless the program is applied intensively and continued through middle school, interest in eating fruits, vegetables and healthy food in general starts to lag.
