Mobile food vending landscape at fifteen Chicago Public Schools elementary schools

Introduction: Many Chicago Public School (CPS) students have access to foods and beverages sold by mobile vendors before and after school yet assessments documenting the types of products available has not been widely recorded.  As a partner for Healthy CPS, a CDC-funded initiative of the CPS Office of Student Health and Wellness, the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) sought to describe mobile vendors’ contribution to the food environment and identify opportunities for intervention to improve the healthfulness of items offered.

Methods:  We conducted 221 menu audits at a convenience sample of 15 schools using a menu audit tool tailored for mobile vendors. Audits were conducted around school dismissal on three days in a calendar week at each school to account for variation in vendor attendance. We categorized products offered by type (e.g., fruit, chips, frozen desserts), combined them into healthy and unhealthy categories, and ran descriptive statistics.

Results: We observed a total of 848 products available to students. Products of similar food type were grouped into nine categories and then determined to be healthy or unhealthy, based on common knowledge and the CPS Healthy Foods and Beverage nutrition criteria.  Frozen desserts (34%) and chips (25%) were the most common types of product available. Healthy products represented 11% of foods offered.

Conclusion: Mobile vendors play an important role in the food environment at CPS. Findings indicate there are multiple opportunities for intervention to improve the school food environment by working with vendors to sell healthier products.