Text

theses

ETD doctoral

Introduction

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), approximately one-third of all food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted, equivalent to approximately 1.3 billion tons of food per year. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that 30-40% of the food in the American supply chain is wasted each year. According to USDA's Economic Research Service, most of that waste (31%) occurs in the retail and consumer levels. School food service can play an important role in reducing food waste nationally. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides a unique opportunity to reduce waste in schools. It is the largest source of school lunch in the US, with 99% of public schools participating in the program, which is more than 95,000 schools nationwide. Studies that have assessed waste in schools have focused on students' consumption and did not report food waste. Additionally, interventions that increase consumption in students do not necessarily reduce food waste. Methods of collecting food waste data varied in prior studies, with partial evidence of the visual assessment of food waste method being as effective as weighing food waste on a scale. Finally, most food waste interventions focused on educating students and teachers. Few studies have included food service staff training and an evaluation of the barriers and facilitators they encounter when implementing strategies to reduce food waste. This research sought to determine whether training food service staff on food waste using the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement (SLM) strategies and Offer vs. Serve Guidelines would decrease the amount of food waste produced by students in Community Eligibility Provision Elementary and Middle Schools in New Jersey.

Specific Aims

This dissertation has three specific aims: (1) to assess the impact of a food waste training program which included Smarter Lunchrooms Movement (SLM) strategies and Offer vs. Serve Guidelines on student food waste; (2) to assess the and the implementation of and fidelity to the training program and explore the factors that facilitate or are barriers to food service staff in the execution of the program; and (3) to examine the agreement between the visual estimation of food waste using a modified quarter plate method as compared to the gold standard weight-based method.

Methods

Food service training was conducted in an urban school district in New Jersey. Trained research staff conducted pre-and post-training food waste audits to assess the number and types of strategies implemented after the training and the amount and type of food waste on each student's tray. Fifteen schools in the district were randomly selected to conduct the food waste audits. A total of 9,258 trays were measured using both visual estimations as well as weights measured in ounces. Additionally, document review of the training materials, sign-in sheets, and program surveys and interviews with 25 food service staff were used for the process evaluation.

Results

Overall, the food waste training successfully reduced students' total food waste in the study sample of 15 schools by 7.01% (p=0.003). Reductions in each food component were also significant for fruit (13.6%), vegetables (7.1%), and milk (4.3%). Additionally, for every SLM strategy implemented, total food waste decreased by 0.42%. On average, 7.40 ± 6.97 strategies were implemented consistently of the 29 SLM strategies that were suggested.

The process evaluation revealed that 87% of the district's food service staff attended, 86.0% of food service workers attended (n=140), and 87.5% of food service managers (n=35) participated in the training. According to the food service staff interviews, significant barriers to implementing the training included the need for equipment, inadequate space, difficulties ordering needed items, and perceived lack of control to make changes. Some of the motivations that food service staff indicated included the importance of making sure students in this urban low-income district ate their lunch. Other food service staff suggested that their field manager's support helped ensure they consistently implemented the strategies. Overall, there was agreement that the intervention was successful, and many indicated they were still implementing the strategies they planned two years after the training.

The assessment of agreement between the visual estimation and weighed methods indicate that overall, the two methods are in agreement. Despite significant paired t-test differences (p<0.001) between the visual estimation and weighed methods, the effect sizes were very small (range: d = 0.02 for entrée and milk to d = 0.04 for vegetable). The interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) assessing overall agreement scores ranged from good to excellent (ICC ranges: 0.88-0.95). However, ICC scores decreased as less food was present on the tray with a range of poor agreement (ICC ranges: 0.00 – 0.38) for all food categories in the <25%-50% estimates, except at the 50% estimation category for vegetables (ICC = 0.73) which indicated moderate agreement.

Conclusion

School food service staff can reduce food waste in schools when given the proper training and provided with the equipment needed to carry out the intervention. Despite only implementing 7.40 ± 6.97 strategies consistently over the intervention period, food waste was reduced by 7.01% (p=0.003). Results also suggest that some strategies may be more effective than others. In this study, food service staff indicated a strong interest in ensuring students consume their lunch; however, food service staff need to be reassured that they can make changes to the cafeteria environment to reduce food waste. Reassurance can be provided by the food service director and field managers and reiterated throughout the implementation period to allow food service staff to feel confident in making necessary changes. Additionally, special considerations for equipment and space are needed to make some of these changes happen to reduce food waste further.

Finally, the visual estimation method can be used as an adequate measurement tool to assess food waste overall. However, it remains to be observed whether milk waste can be accurately assessed using the visual estimation method without any modifications. Additionally, this research suggests that weight measure is more precise and can be more sensitive for detecting potentially small effects. Therefore, given the small effect sizes of some of the cafeteria interventions in schools, using the weighed method to assess intervention impacts may be more successful.

ETD_11395

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-6eh3-gd97

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