Dive Brief:

• Students are more likely to choose healthier food in lunch spaces that are "more comfortable," according to reporting by District Administration.
• A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called "Healthy Eating Design Guidelines for School Architecture" can be used as a guide for school systems.
• Features like open teaching kitchens that allow students to watch staff prepare meals, natural lighting, salad bars and water fountains can help motivate better nutrition and healthier diets.

Dive Insight:

For American students, any push toward healthier eating is a good move to help combat growing rates of childhood obesity.

Overall, while school lunches have grown incrementally more healthy over time, students are now opting out of eating them. A 2015 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more school lunches include at least two servings of vegetables and more whole grains since 2010.

Some politicians also want to modify what counts as a healthy lunch. A bipartisan Senate bill introduced in January would scale back the healthy school lunch measures that Republicans have fought against, allowing schools to keep, for example, high-sodium options. To many, the bill was viewed as a kind of truce between school nutrition directors opposed to the stricter lunch standards and First Lady Michelle Obama.