Cover: Students' Consumption of High and Low Nutrition Foods and Reduced Plate Waste by Schools' Wellness-Related Policies and Garden Program Participation

Students' Consumption of High and Low Nutrition Foods and Reduced Plate Waste by Schools' Wellness-Related Policies and Garden Program Participation

Published in: Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Volume 36, Issue 3, pages 864-874 (June 2023). doi: 10.1111/jhn.13167

Posted on RAND.org on November 06, 2023

by Andrea Richardson, Alvin Kristian Nugroho, Tamara Dubowitz, Dana Schultz, Corby K. Martin

Background

Participation in school‐based programs that may support children's nutritious dietary behaviours varies across schools. We examined school participation in wellness‐related policies, school‐based garden programs and students' dietary behaviours.

Methods

Among matching schools who did and did not participate in school-based garden programs, we analysed the lunches of 80 Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) students in 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th grades during Autumn 2019 using digital food photography. We also acquired school wellness policy data. Using cross‐sectional linear regression, we estimated the association between school‐based garden programming, wellness‐related policies and dietary outcomes, adjusting for grade.

Results

School's implementation of nutrition services policies was negatively associated with energy wasted from lunch (β = −44.7, p = 0.01). The number of semesters the students' school had participated in the garden program was positively associated with students' whole grain consumption (β = 0.07, p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Cross‐sectional associations suggest that schools that are more engaged in wellness policies and garden programs may provide environments that are more supportive of students' nutrition than in other schools.

Access further information on this document at Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics

Research conducted by

This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.