5-A-Day Cafeteria Power Plus

Principal Investigators
Donald B. Bishop, PhD, Minnesota Department of Health
Cheryl L. Perry, PhD, University of Minnesota

Funding
National Cancer Institute
Produce for Better Health Association

Objective
A randomized school-based study that evaluated an environmental intervention to increase sales of lower fat foods in secondary school cafeterias.

Methods
Twenty-six schools were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control condition. Baseline lunch observations of a sample (n = 1668) of 1st and 3rd grade students occurred in Spring 2000; follow-up was in Spring 2002. The intervention took place during two consecutive school years beginning in Fall 2000 and consisted of daily activities (increasing the availability, attractiveness, and encouragement for fruits and vegetables) and special events (kick-offs, samplings, challenge weeks, theater production, and finale meal). Training of food service staff and cook managers was ongoing throughout the intervention phase.

Parent Postcard (2 sides)

Results
Students in the intervention schools significantly increased their total fruit intake. Process measures indicated that verbal encouragement by food service staff was associated with outcomes.

Conclusion
The outcomes suggest that multi-component interventions are more powerful than cafeteria programs alone with this age group.

Materials
Food service manual and materials available by Fall 2003.

Publication
Perry CL, Bishop DB, Taylor GL, David M, Story M, Gray C, Bishop SC, Warren-Mays RA, Lytle LA, Harnack L. A randomized school trial of environmental strategies to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption among children. Health Education & Behavior. Submitted.