Alisha R. Farris

Food Waste in a School Nutrition Program After Implementation of New Lunch Program Guidelines

OBJECTIVE To assess the amount of food waste by meal components according to the new National School Lunch Program guidelines among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. METHODS For 5 consecutive school days in 1 elementary school, the research team collected school lunch trays and separated meal components into bins relative to each food or beverage appearing on the schools daily menu. Bins were weighed in grams and converted to ounces and cups at the end of each lunch period. RESULTS The researchers examined 304 meals from 1 pre-kindergarten class and 5 kindergarten classes. Of 4,988 oz of food and beverages served, 2,261 oz (45.3%) were wasted during 1 full school week, totaling 141 lb. The greatest amount of food waste was generated from vegetables, the main entree, and milk, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Strategies to reduce food waste in school lunch should be researched and implemented.

A Comparison of Fruits, Vegetables, Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, and Desserts in the Packed Lunches of Elementary School Children

BACKGROUND An estimated 40% of children bring a packed lunch to school. These lunches are not required to meet nutrition standards. The aim of this study was to compare differences in the nutritional quality of elementary packed lunches by the presence or absence of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), desserts, and fruits and vegetables (FVs). METHODS Observational data for prekindergarten and kindergarten packed lunches were collected from three schools in rural Virginia for 5 consecutive school days and analyzed for macro- and micronutrients and by the presence or absence of food and beverage items. RESULTS Of the 561 packed lunch observations collected, 41.7% contained no FV, 41.2% contained an SSB, and 61.1% contained a dessert. The nutrient profile of packed lunches with at least one fruit or vegetable had significantly higher levels of carbohydrate, fiber, sugar, vitamin A, and vitamin C. Packed lunches containing an SSB had significantly higher levels of sugar and vitamin C and significantly lower levels of protein, fiber, vitamin A, calcium, and iron. Packed lunches containing a dessert had significantly higher levels of energy, carbohydrate, fat, saturated fat, sodium, sugar, vitamin C, and iron and significantly lower levels of vitamin A. CONCLUSIONS Additional research is needed to fully understand parent and child motivations for packing lunches and the decision processes that influence the inclusion of food items. The development of packed lunch interventions, encouragement of National School Lunch Program participation, or enactment of school policies to increase the nutritional value of packed lunches is warranted.

Reliability of a Market Basket Assessment Tool (MBAT) for Use in SNAP-Ed Healthy Retail Initiatives

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of the Market Basket Assessment Tool (MBAT) for assessing the availability of fruits and vegetables, low‐fat or nonfat dairy and eggs, lean meats, whole‐grain products, and seeds, beans, and nuts in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program–authorized retail environments. Methods: Different trained raters used the MBAT simultaneously at 14 retail environments to measure interrater reliability. Raters returned to 12 retail environments (85.7%) 1 week later to measure test‐retest reliability. Data were analyzed using paired‐sample t tests and correlations. Results: No significant differences were found for interrater reliability or test‐retest reliability for individual categories (mean differences, 0.0 to 0.3 ± 0.2 points) or total score (mean difference, 0.5 ± 0.4 points and (mean differences, 0.0 to 0.3 ± 0.3 points) or total score (mean difference, 0.8 ± 0.4 points), respectively. Conclusions and Implications: Future steps include validation of the MBAT. A low‐burden tool can facilitate evaluation of efforts to promote healthful foods in retail environments.