Consuming policy: Organizing school meal programs to promote healthy eating practices

At the start of the 2006 school year, two very different policies instituted healthy eating changes in Arizona school meal programs. The Arizona. Nutrition Standards restructured a la carte and vending machine options at K-8 schools, while Public Law 108-265 asked local school districts to create their own wellness policy. Public and organizational policies provide individual stakeholders with a documented posture that both enables and constrains participation. Considering that policies are formulated through dialogue and deliberation, implemented through negotiation between producer and consumer, and evaluated against other initiatives and programs, they also serve important communicative roles in the organizing of everyday experiences. This project uses structuration theory and the concept of institutionalized eating to examine the talk, texts, and larger discourses that operate during a major policy change. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the Arizona Nutrition Standards and the local wellness policy initiative as a context for organizing healthy eating practices. The illustrations and recommendations offered in this case study suggest that stakeholders must enable increased participation from a wide range of individuals (e.g., food service directors, state nutrition agents, students, lunchroom workers, teachers, parents, and school administrators) in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policy initiatives.