Outsourcing Meals: Effects of Maternal Employment on Children’s School Meal Participation

Ashlesha Datar, RAND Corporation
Nancy Nicosia, RAND Corporation

Increases in maternal employment have placed significant time constraints on families. This is likely to affect mothers’ allocation of time towards activities related to children’s diet, physical activity, and overall well-being. One potential consequence is that mothers may choose to “outsource” meal preparation to school because school meals are subsidized, convenient, and nutritionally regulated. In this paper, we examine whether increases in maternal employment influence children’s school breakfast and lunch participation. We address the endogeneity of maternal employment using local labor market indicators as instrumental variables. Our results suggest that children whose mothers work are more likely to participate in school lunch perhaps as a means to reduce household time allocated to meal preparation. However, these same children are less likely to participate in school breakfast and more likely to eat breakfast at home with family. We discuss why working mothers may view school breakfasts and lunches differently.