Healthy Planet, Healthy Youth: A Food Systems Education and Promotion Intervention to Improve Adolescent Diet Quality and Reduce Food Waste

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests a link between young people’s interest in alternative food production practices and dietary quality. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a student-driven sustainable food systems education and promotion intervention on adolescent school lunch selection, consumption, and waste behaviors. Sixth grade science teachers at two middle schools (n = 268 students) implemented a standards-based curriculum on sustainable food systems, addressing the environmental impacts of food choices and food waste. The cumulating curriculum activity required the 6th grade students to share their food systems knowledge with their 7th and 8th grade counterparts (n = 426) through a cafeteria promotional campaign to discourage food waste. School-wide monthly plate waste assessments were used to evaluate changes in vegetable consumption and overall plate waste using a previously validated digital photography method. At baseline, the intervention students consumed significantly less vegetables relative to the control group (47.1% and 71.8% of vegetables selected, respectively (p = 0.006). This disparity was eliminated after the intervention with the intervention group consuming 69.4% and the control consuming 68.1% of selected vegetables (p = 0.848). At five months follow up, the intervention group wasted significantly less salad bar vegetables compared to the control group (24.2 g and 50.1 g respectively (p = 0.029). These findings suggest that food systems education can be used to promote improved dietary behaviors among adolescent youth.

Education and Diet in the Scientific Literature: A Study of the Productive, Structural, and Dynamic Development in Web of Science

“…In addition to a sedentary lifestyle, obesity is affecting a large part of the population because they do not follow the appropriate nutritional recommendations for a proper diet [3,4]. As a consequence of this worrying situation, educational centers are carrying out initiatives and training programs to encourage the promotion of dietary education with the aim of improving students' knowledge [6,7,[9][10][11] and to encourage an active and healthy life in order to reduce the possibility of suffering from certain diseases resulting from a poor diet [17][18][19].…”

“…In this sense, education plays a primary role in establishing good eating habits in people [6]. Specifically, dietary education can promote the adequate behavior of adolescents in the face of their inadequate diet [7]. In line with this, it has been observed that youths follow a diet with a high sugar content, which is detrimental to their health [8].…”

Food Sustainability Knowledge and Attitudes in the Spanish Adult Population: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The very few studies addressing related questions have focused on aspects such as consumers’ willingness-to-pay for sustainable specific products (such as some organic and local foods) [ 16 , 17 ], the possible interaction between millennials and sustainability in the food sector [ 18 ], or the knowledge and awareness of general sustainability initiatives among college students [ 19 , 20 ]. Most of these studies support, as a main conclusion, the need to implement a wide range of initiatives aimed at educating consumers about sustainable dietary patterns, thus highlighting the general unawareness of the population, and a missing systematic engagement with formal education on this topic, in the community.…”

Assessing the Relationship between District and State Policies and School Nutrition Promotion-Related Practices in the United States

“…The most commonly used nutrition promotion strategies were related to promoting healthy food choices through encouraging students to select fruit, as well as conducting taste tests, which both engage students in decision-making processes. These collaborative strategies have been found to be successful in fostering healthy choices in the lunchroom [36,37], thus providing a feasible approach to promoting high-quality nutritional consumption. Less commonly used strategies were related to asking for student input on menu planning and specific menu items.…”