An Innovative Method of Measuring Changes in Access to Healthful Foods in School Lunch Programs: Findings from a Pilot Evaluation

A large local health department in Colorado partnered with 15 school districts to develop an approach to evaluate changes in access to healthy foods in reimbursable school lunches and a la carte offerings. School district nutrition managers were engaged at the start of this project. Health departmen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-01, Vol.11 (1), p.e0146875-e0146875
Main Authors: Hawkes, Allison P, Weinberg, Stacy L, Janusz, Ruth, Demont-Heinrich, Christine, Vogt, Richard L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adults
Agriculture
Beverages
Biology and Life Sciences
Calories
Change detection
Child
Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena - physiology
Children
Colorado - epidemiology
Computer and Information Sciences
Diet
Energy Intake - physiology
Evaluation
Federal regulation
Food
Food - classification
Food Dispensers, Automatic
Food Services
Fruits
Health care
Health Promotion - methods
Humans
Internet
Jurisdiction
Lunch
Lunches
Mathematical analysis
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Nutrition
Nutrition research
Nutritional assessment
Nutritive Value
Obesity
Pediatric Obesity - epidemiology
Pediatric Obesity - prevention & control
Pilot Projects
School boards
School breakfast programs
School food services
School Health Services
School lunches
Schools
Social Sciences
Statistical analysis
Students
Sugar
Vegetables
Youth
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Summary:A large local health department in Colorado partnered with 15 school districts to develop an approach to evaluate changes in access to healthy foods in reimbursable school lunches and a la carte offerings. School district nutrition managers were engaged at the start of this project. Health department dietitians developed criteria to classify food items as "Lower Fat and less added Sugar" (LFS) and "Higher Fat and more added Sugar" (HFS) based on the percentage of calories from fat and grams of added sugar. Lunch production sheets were obtained for two time periods, food items and the number of planned servings recorded. LFS and HFS planned servings were summed for each time period, and a LFS to HFS ratio calculated by dividing LFS planned servings by HFS planned servings. Additional analyses included calculating LFS: HFS ratios by school district, and for a la carte offerings. In 2009, the LFS: HFS ratio was 2.08, in 2011, 3.71 (P
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0146875