Food budget in kindergarten- is there an association with diet quality?

Background: There is good evidence that the early establishment of healthy habits seems to track over later in life, and kindergarten is a unique arena to promote a healthy diet. It is variable how kindergartens work with food and meals and what is served by food. Food budget is often seen as a barrier considering a healthy diet in kindergartens. The aim of the present study was therefore to explore if the food budget is associated with the diet quality in kindergartens and how low the budget might be before diet quality is changed. Method: The present study collects data through Healthier kids, a free web-based program that aims to streamline work with food and meals in kindergartens. As a part of Healthier kids, the kindergartens answer a web-based questionnaire that assesses the monthly food budget per child, the frequency of meals kindergarten serves, and how often the kindergartens serve food according to nutrition guidelines. The food budget was categorized into five groups; very low to very high budget level, and we made a total diet sum score. Logistic regression was used to explore the associations between diet quality and food budget. Results: Based on 324 kindergartens, the results showed that diet quality in kindergartens was lower when the food budget was very low (0-199 NOK) compared to higher budget levels (OR 3.8). There was no difference in diet quality between low budget (200-299 NOK) compared to medium (OR .77), high (OR 1.2) or very high (>500 NOK) (OR 1.1) food budgets. Conclusion: The results in the present study only show a difference in diet quality when the food budget was very low, but there was no difference in diet quality when the budget was low compared to medium, high and very high. This might indicate that other environmental factors in the kindergarten might be important related to high diet quality in kindergartens.