A nationally representative survey of 1,027 U.S. adolescents aged 13–17, conducted in July–August 2025 via the NORC AmeriSpeak Teen Omnibus platform, found that nearly 1 in 4 teens use mobile food delivery apps during school hours, with 58.8% ordering fast food and 34.1% ordering sugar-sweetened beverages. Regional disparities were sharp: approximately 34% of western U.S. students attended schools permitting on-campus delivery—far exceeding other regions—yet cost concerns tempered usage there. Nearly half of respondents (47.2%) support in-school delivery, though distraction emerged as a cross-cutting concern.
This finding lands at a critical policy inflection point. Two decades of federal school nutrition reform—from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to updated USDA meal standards—have measurably improved adolescent diet quality and reduced childhood obesity rates. Mobile delivery apps now represent a largely unregulated side door that effectively bypasses those gains. The mechanism is behavioral and structural: smartphones give adolescents purchasing autonomy that school cafeteria architecture previously constrained. The 50% after-school usage rate suggests habitual app-driven eating extends well beyond campus boundaries, compounding cumulative dietary risk.
Limitations are real: this is a self-reported, cross-sectional survey with no dietary biomarkers or longitudinal follow-up, and self-report biases may distort frequency estimates. As a preprint not yet peer-reviewed, findings could shift with formal scrutiny. Still, the sample size and probability-based panel lend reasonable representativeness. The practical implication is urgent and incremental rather than paradigm-shifting: policymakers need explicit digital food environment regulations alongside existing physical cafeteria standards.
