Great taste, less waste: A communication campaign to improve the quality of foods brought from home to school

Introduction: Foods brought from home are of consistently poorer nutritional quality than foods served by school lunch programs in the US and other westernized countries. To address that problem, an intervention to improve foods from home, Great Taste, Less Waste (GTLW) capitalized on the natural synergy between healthy eating and eco-friendly behaviors. A randomized, controlled trial tested the hypothesis that this nutrition-eco campaign would improve quality of foods from home more than a nutrition-only campaign or no intervention. Methods: Both campaigns included a 22-lesson curriculum for children in grades 3 and 4, school-based activities, and parent materials. Campaign design, guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, aimed to increase fruits and vegetables and decrease sugar-sweetened beverages. Foods from home were measured at baseline and 7 months later using digital photography. Since no differences between the nutrition-only and the control groups were found, they were combined in further analyses. Multilevel log-binomial regression compared servings of fruit, vegetables and sugar-sweetened beverages between groups. Results: 590 children from 85 classrooms in 12 schools participated; 24% were non-White; 36% came from household incomes <$50,000. Children in the GTLW intervention were 28% more likely to bring fruits than the comparison group (P=0.001) and 69% more likely to bring vegetables (P=0.13). There was no effect on sugar-sweetened beverages (P=0.85). Discussion: Messages that include social responsibility are a promising approach to increasing healthy food consumption. Further research is needed to address the challenge of extending the effect to sugar-sweetened beverages.