How Environmental Interventions Influence Behavior in School Lunchrooms

January 24, 2022 updated by: Cornell University

Evaluating the Impact on Lunch Sales and Consumption of New School Lunch Guidelines and Behavioral Interventions in NYC Schools

The investigators hypothesize that the new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations for lunches served as part of the National School Lunch Program will decrease the percentage of enrolled students purchasing lunch, increase the percentage of children taking fruit and vegetables, decrease the percentage of fruit and vegetable servings being thrown away, and increase the total number of fruit and vegetable servings eaten.

The investigators also hypothesize that when the regulations are in force, simple behavioral interventions can counteract the potentially negative impact on lunch sales and consumption. In other words, implementing the regulations and behavioral interventions together, the percentage of enrolled students taking a school lunch will increase at least back to baseline levels, the percentage of children taking fruits and vegetables will increase, the percentage of fruit and vegetable servings wasted will decrease, and the total number of fruit and vegetable servings eaten will increase.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study was conducted in 43 schools in the New York City (NYC) School district in the spring of 2012. The new regulations for school lunches were scheduled to roll out nationally in the fall of the same year, so this study was designed to provide an indication of the impact the new regulations would have.

In addition to the regulations, the investigators also tested additional behavioral interventions, in conjunction with the regulations, to determine how the behavioral interventions might offset, or magnify, the impacts of the regulations.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

43

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States
        • New York City School District

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

5 years to 19 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Public schools with any combination of grades K-12

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No point of sale system in school
  • Satellite school
  • Feeder school

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: USDA Regulations Only
Implement USDA Regulations in assigned school cafeterias during the intervention period.
Behavioral: USDA Regulations

Implement new USDA regulations assigned school cafeterias.

  1. Fruit or vegetable on every tray
  2. Meet requirements for vegetable varieties
  3. 50% of all grains must be whole grain
  4. Milk must be 1% or skim; flavored milk must be skim
Experimental: USDA Regulations and Marketing Kit
Implement new USDA regulations in assigned schools along with the Marketing Kit during the intervention period.
Behavioral: USDA Regulations

Implement new USDA regulations assigned school cafeterias.

  1. Fruit or vegetable on every tray
  2. Meet requirements for vegetable varieties
  3. 50% of all grains must be whole grain
  4. Milk must be 1% or skim; flavored milk must be skim
Behavioral: Marketing Kit

This marketing tool kit is designed to encourage purchasing of school lunches. The marketing tool kit included the following components:

  1. 56''x72'' vinyl sign with the words "[school mascot] Cafe"
  2. 8.5''x11'' signs describing the foods offered on a specific day
  3. 2''x4'' signs used to name all foods. These were to be placed in a visible location near the corresponding food.
  4. Magnetic board displaying a tray onto which magnets shaped as food can be placed to show what foods were being offered during a specific lunch shift.
Experimental: USDA Regulations and SLM
Implement USDA Regulations and Smarter Lunchrooms Makeover in assigned schools during intervention period.
Behavioral: USDA Regulations

Implement new USDA regulations assigned school cafeterias.

  1. Fruit or vegetable on every tray
  2. Meet requirements for vegetable varieties
  3. 50% of all grains must be whole grain
  4. Milk must be 1% or skim; flavored milk must be skim
Behavioral: Smarter Lunchrooms Makeover (SLM)

Implement three basic Smarter Lunchrooms techniques. It consists of the following components:

  1. Place fruit in an attractive bowl or serving dish and set on two places on the line. One of the places should be at or near the register.
  2. Give all vegetables descriptive names and write or type them on a 2''x4'' card. These cards should be visible and placed near the corresponding food.
  3. Make white milk the most prominent milk in the milk coolers by making it the most available milk and easiest to take.
No Intervention: Control
Schools assigned to this intervention made no changes to their lunchroom or menus.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in percent fruit or vegetable waste by student
Time Frame: Six months
In the twelve schools, tray waste data were collected twice in April 2012 and once in May 2012. Results were generated and reported in September 2012.
Six months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in lunch sales
Time Frame: Six months
Lunch sales data were collected each school day in the 43 schools from March through May 2012. Results were generated and reported in September 2012.
Six months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in servings of fruits and vegetables taken
Time Frame: Six months
Each school cafeteria keeps records on the number of servings of each food served during a lunch period. These data were collected each day in the 43 schools from March through May 2012. Results were generated and reported in September 2012.
Six months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Cornell University

Collaborators

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Investigators

  • Study Director: Brian Wansink, PhD, Cornell University
  • Principal Investigator: Adam Brumberg, BA, Cornell University
  • Principal Investigator: Kathryn Hoy, RD, MFN, Cornell University
  • Study Chair: David Just, PhD, Cornell University
  • Principal Investigator: Andrew Hanks, PhD, Cornell University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

March 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 3, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 18, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

March 19, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 7, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 24, 2022

Last Verified

January 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1202002824

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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