Start Date: March 2013

ID #: 70740

Principal Investigator: Kathryn Henderson, PhD

Organization: Yale University

Funding Round: Round 7

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The aim of this project is to examine how varied changes to the school food environment affect children’s food choices and dietary intake, lunchroom waste, and overall financial costs. The following environmental interventions will be investigated: 1) removing unhealthy choices from the school lunchroom and promoting the remaining healthy options (Healthy Choices condition); 2) maintaining a range of healthy and less healthy products and nudging students toward the healthy items (Healthy Nudge condition); and 3) maintaining the full range of options without nudging (control condition). Three large schools from an ethnically diverse, severely economically disadvantaged inner-city school district will be recruited and randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. Outcome data will include: 1) competitive food purchases, assessed using electronic point-of-purchase monitoring and supplemented by data from digital cameras; 2) dietary recall data (i.e., caloric intake, fruit/vegetable intake, whole grains, fiber, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat) measured using the Automated Self-Administered 24-hour dietary recall; 3) food waste data analyzed monthly for each food item; and 4) financial (profit/loss) data from the district food service.

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