Graduation date: 1994

Thesis (M.S.)--Northwest Missouri State University, 2009. / The full text of the thesis is included in the pdf file. Title from title screen of full text.pdf file (viewed on July 17, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis outlines various standards associated with the operation of school cafeterias so that they might be observed in East Texas schools.

Childhood obesity has tripled over the past three decades and poses a serious public health problem. The Smarter Lunchrooms Movement aims to increase healthy eating by incorporating low-cost to no-cost alterations to the school lunchroom in an effort to increase consumption of healthier foods, such as fruits and vegetables, by making them more attractive and convenient. Our study implemented Smarter Lunchrooms interventions at two primarily Hispanic elementary schools in Paso Robles, CA. The interventions focused on increasing the appeal of the salad bars, including installation of age-appropriate signage highlighting fruits and vegetables, as well as branding of fruits and vegetables with fun age-appropriate characters. Fruits were also placed into decorative bowls to increase their attractiveness. To determine whether these changes had an influence on fruit and vegetable choice and consumption, we tracked student’s choice and intake prior to and following the intervention. Consumption was analyzed using a visual tray waste measurement to determine how much fruit, vegetable, and entrée the students ate during lunch. Following the intervention, the proportion of children who selected fruits and vegetables increased at one school, but not at the other. Of the children that selected fruits and/or vegetables, the proportion eating the entire fruit or vegetable increased at both schools, while the proportion of students who did not eat any of their vegetables decreased at one school. There were few significant differences by grade level (1-3 and 4-5). If easy-to-implement strategies such as Smarter Lunchrooms interventions are effective mitigators of obesity risk, larger scale efforts across populations may help stem the ever-increasing impact of obesity. Therefore, future research should identify targeted methods by which to approach younger vs. older children among diverse socio-demographic and geographic groups.

Master of Science

The purpose of this study is to show what foods were made available to the children in the year 1943-1944; what foods the children chose from the available foods; what nutritive value the chosen foods possessed; and what the chosen lunches cost the children.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, page: 3153. Adviser: Wendell C. Taylor. Includes bibliographical references.

The present study was made without benefit of poster, films, bulletin board, or other teaching aids. It was undertaken to determine the nutritive values of the menus served, the foods selected by the plate lunches, and the amount of food wasted in two elementary, two junior high, and two senior high school lunch cafeterias in the City of Dallas during a six month period of time.

Aim: To determine whether the tuck shop purchasing habits of Grade 4 learners were contributing towards the development of childhood overweight and obesity. Objectives: To assess the nutritional quality of the food and beverages available for learners to purchase; items regularly purchased from the tuck shop as well as factors influencing the learner’s decision to purchase these items; the anthropometric and socio-demographic characteristics of grade 4 learners as well as their nutrition knowledge related to the tuck shop items purchased. Method: A survey administered to 11 tuck shop managers, a questionnaire administered to 311 Grade 4 learners and two single-sex focus groups of 5 learners each were conducted. Results: Fifty six percent of the sample were female (n=173) and 44% were male (n=138). Twenty seven percent of the study sample was overweight (n = 83) and 27% were obese (n = 85). Eighty six percent of learners (n = 266) claimed to buy from their school tuck shop. Twenty two percent of learners purchased from their tuck shop at least three times per week (n =58). Learners who purchased from the tuck shop had a significantly higher BMI than those who did not (p = 0.020). Learners who purchased from the tuck shop spent on average R8,38 per day with a minimum of R1 and a maximum of R40 (standard deviation R5.39). The most popular reasons for visiting the tuck shop included “this is my favourite thing to eat or drink” (66.5%, n = 177) and “I only have enough money to buy this item” (47.0%, n = 125). Savoury pies were the most popular "lunch" item for all learners for both food breaks (45%, n = 5 schools and 27.3%, n = 3 schools) selling the most number of units (43) per day at eight of the eleven schools (72.7%). Iced popsicles were sold at almost every school, ranked as the cheapest beverage and also sold the most number of units (40.7). Healthy beverages sold included canned fruit juice and water, while healthy snacks consisted of dried fruit, fruit salad, bananas, yoghurt and health muffins. The average healthy snack contained almost half the kilojoules of its unhealthy counterpart (465kJ vs 806kJ). Nutritional analyses of the healthy lunch options revealed total fat contents that exceeded the DRI and South African recommended limit. Perceived barriers to stocking healthy items included cost and refrigeration restrictions. The average score for the food groups was only 33% indicating that learners were not familiar with the Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG). Further analyses showed that the total knowledge scores of those learners that reported to buy from the tuck shop frequently, was significantly lower when compared to the total knowledge scores of those learners who bought from the tuck shop less frequently (13.0 ± 3.9 and 11.6 ± 3.1, respectively; p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis confirmed that the total knowledge of a learner could be used to predict whether he or she is more likely to make purchases from the tuck shop (significance = 0.017). Focus group results revealed that learners are aware of “healthy” and “unhealthy” tuck shop items. Most learners stated that they would continue to purchase items from their tuck shop if all “unhealthy” items were removed. Conclusion: Primary school tuck shops of well resourced schools in Pietermaritzburg are contributing to childhood overweight and obesity through a combination of factors. These include the poor nutritional quality of the items stocked at the tuck shop as well as the poor tuck shop purchasing practices. Much consultation is required amongst dieticians, school principals and privatised tuck shop managers to overcome barriers to stocking healthy items. School management and government have an important role to play in imposing restrictions on the sale of unhealthy items; along with improving the quality of the nutrition education curriculum to ensure that learners are able to translate their knowledge into healthier purchasing practices. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

MPM / Oliver Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies