Due in part to the broach reach of school meals programs and the potential negative impact of competitive foods with minimal nutritional value, school food environments have become a target of childhood obesity prevention initiatives. The Smarter Lunchrooms Movement includes easy, no- or low-cost strategies that can encourage students to select and consume healthful foods at school without eliminating their choices.
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was initiated in 13 New York State middle schools to test the effectiveness of select Smarter Lunchrooms practices designed to increase students’ selection and consumption of fruit, vegetables, and unsweetened milk. This project included process evaluation in order to monitor project implementation, determine barriers and facilitators to implementation, and identify staff support needs.
In this webinar Alisha Gaines, PhD, Cornell University Division of Nutritional Sciences, overviews of the design and results of the Smarter Lunchrooms RCT process evaluation. While she does not share outcome results of the study, a discussion of how process evaluation results can be applied to future research and practice will be included.
Resources
Implementing Smarter Lunchrooms Makeovers in New York state middle schools: an initial process evaluation
- https://archpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13690-016-0153-9
- Contact Alisha Gaines (againes@cornell.edu) with questions
SLM
-
http://smarterlunchrooms.org/
- See Our Ideas>Best Practices, Resources, and Training
- Other SLM webinars
- Measuring the Long-Term Impact of Behavioral Interventions in School Cafeterias https://learn.extension.org/events/2856
Food and Nutrition Education in Communities (FNEC)
SNAP-Ed Toolkit