Altering dietary patterns is essential to ameliorating the environmental impacts of the world food system. This study assesses the environmental impacts of a representative sample of lunches served in the U.S. National School Lunch Program (NSLP) during the 2014–2015 school year. Meat products were the largest contributors to environmental impacts across all categories. The top 20% of lunches with the highest impacts accounted for ~40% of the total environmental burden. Results suggest increasing whole grain requirements and limiting beef servings could significantly reduce the NSLP's environmental footprint.

Alexandra L. Stern, Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Christina D. Economos, Timothy S. Griffin