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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Susan Potter, MS¹, Doris Schneider, MS², Gary May, BS², Karin Coyle, PhD¹, Leah Robin, PhD³, and Karen Debrot, DrPH³. (1) Research Department, ETR Associates, 4 Carbonero Way, Scotts Valley, CA 95066, 831-438-4060, suep@etr.org, (2) Office of Child Nutrition Programs, Mississippi Department of Education, PO Box 771, Jackson, MS 39205, (3) Division of Adolescent and School Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NE, MS K-33, Atlanta, GA 30341

Consumption of fruit and vegetables among children is generally below recommended levels. During the 2004-05 school year, the Mississippi Department of Education, Child Nutrition Programs initiated a pilot program to distribute free fruit and vegetables to students during the school day. This study addresses two questions: 1) To what extent did children's attitudes toward, familiarity with, and preferences for fruit and vegetables change over the school year? and 2) To what extent did children's consumption of fruit and vegetables change over the school year? A self-report survey was used to answer question 1 and was administered to 725 students in grades 5, 8, and 10. It assessed demographic characteristics, attitudes towards eating fruit and vegetables, willingness to try fruit and vegetables, preferences for and familiarity with fruit and vegetables, and intentions to eat fruit and vegetables. To answer question 2, 24-hour dietary recall interviews were conducted with a random sample of 207 students in grades 8 and 10. The evaluation featured a one-group pretest-posttest design involving students from 5 program schools. Results show greater familiarity with fruit and vegetables at all grade levels (p<0.05); increased preferences for fruit among 8th and 10th grade students (p<0.01); increased willingness to try new fruit among 8th grade students (p<0.001); and increased consumption of fruit, but not vegetables among 8th and 10th grade students (p<0.001). Study conclusions suggest the distribution of free fruit and vegetables at school may be a viable component of a more comprehensive approach for improving students' nutrition behaviors.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to describe the MS Fresh Fruit and Vegetable study design, which forms the basis for this paper.
• Participants will be able to discuss the study results and limitations.
• Participants will be able to describe at least two lessons learned from the study and how those could be applied in future studies of fresh fruit and vegetable distribution programs.

Keywords: Food and Nutrition, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No