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The two pilot studies presented in this brief were con-ducted to assess the feasibility and fi nancial impact of implementing the SB19 standards and allowed the researchers to develop a system for schools to monitor the fi nancial impact of making changes to competitive foods and beverages.

One study, conducted by the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health with funding from the California Department of Education (CDE), evaluated the Linking Education, Activity and Food (LEAF) program which pilot tested SB 19 in 5 high schools and 11 middle schools.

Another study funded by NIH (National Institutes of Health) and the California Endowment and jointly conducted by WestEd, UCLA, the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health, and Samuels and Associates, examined the impact of SB 19 in elementary and middleschools. All of the schools in addition to implementing the nutrition standards also adopted and implemented, to varying degrees, an array of other policies to support healthy eating and increased physical activity among the students.

As is the case for most elementary schools, the elemen-tary schools that participated in these studies sold little or no competitive foods and beverages (foods and bev-erages sold on school campuses outside of the school meal program) and were less fi nancially dependent on food sales as compared to secondary schools. Therefore only data from the 15 middle schools and 5 high schools that participated in the 2 studies are included in this report. Furthermore only fi ndings from food service sales are presented. Although other venues sold competitive foods and beverages, complete fi nancial data was not always available from these sources. Furthermore the food service department tended to be one of the larger providers of competitive foods and beverages especially at the middle school level.

Most of the schools were relatively low-income schools with a moderate to high percentage of students eligible for free and reduced priced meals. Therefore the results may not apply to food service departments at higher income schools that tend to be more dependent on a la carte sales.