A Plate Waste Evaluation of the Farm to School Program

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the impacts of the Farm to School (FTS) Program on the selection and consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Design: Plate waste data were recorded using the visual inspection method before and after implementation of the program.

Setting: Six elementary schools in Florida: 3 treatment and 3 control schools.

Participants: A total of 11,262 meal observations of National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participants in grades 1-5.

Intervention: The FTS Program, specifically local procurement of NSLP offerings, began in treatment schools in November, 2015 after the researchers collected preintervention data.

Main outcome measures: The NSLP participants' selection and consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Analysis: Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and proportions tests and difference-in-difference regressions.

Results: The NSLP participants at the treatment schools consumed, on average, 0.061 (P = .002) more servings of vegetables and 0.055 (P = .05) more servings of fruit after implementation of the FTS Program. When school-level fixed effects are included, ordinary least squares and tobit regression results indicated that NSLP participants at the treatment schools respectively consumed 0.107 (P < .001) and 0.086 (P < .001) more servings of vegetables, on average, after implementation of the FTS Program.

Conclusions and implications: Local procurement positively affected healthy eating.

Keywords: Farm to School; children; fruit consumption; school lunch; vegetable consumption.