Abstract
Objective
To investigate the impacts of the Farm to School (FTS) Program on the selection and consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Design
Plate waste data were recorded using the visual inspection method before and after
implementation of the program.
Setting
Six elementary schools in Florida: 3 treatment and 3 control schools.
Participants
A total of 11,262 meal observations of National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participants in grades 1–5.
Intervention
The FTS Program, specifically local procurement of NSLP offerings, began in treatment schools in
November, 2015 after the researchers collected preintervention data.
Main Outcome Measures
The NSLP participants' selection and consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Analysis
Data were analyzed using Mann–Whitney U and proportions tests and difference-in-difference
regressions.
Results
The NSLP participants at the treatment schools consumed, on average, 0.061 (P = .002) more servings of vegetables and 0.055 (P = .05) more servings of fruit after implementation of the FTS Program. When school-level fixed effects are included, ordinary least squares and tobit regression
results indicated that NSLP participants at the treatment schools respectively consumed
0.107 (P < .001) and 0.086 (P < .001) more servings of vegetables, on average, after implementation of the FTS
Program.
Conclusions and Implications
Local procurement positively affected healthy eating.
Key Words
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 14, 2017
Accepted:
October 17,
2017
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The conflict of interest disclosures can be found online with this article on www.jneb.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
