Salad Bars in the National School Lunch Program: Impact on Dietary Consumption Patterns in Elementary School Students

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Diet, Food, and Nutrition

Treatments: Other: Salad bar post-COVID; Other: Salad bar; Other: Waitlisted control

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05605483

HM20012226

Details and patient eligibility

About

This project is a research study looking at what foods students choose and eat during school lunch and examines how salad bars impact what children eat.

Full description

This project applies a wait list control cluster randomized controlled trial to evaluate school salad bars. This project uses digital images (pictures) of labeled trays in the cafeteria before and after children eat lunch. This project also asks cafeteria workers about their thoughts about salad bars and their experiences with the salad bar program.

Enrollment: 6,269 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 5+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Students: All K-6th grade students at target schools who participate in the school lunch program on rating day
• Cafeteria staff: All cafeteria personnel at the randomly selected target schools will be eligible to complete surveys

Exclusion criteria

• Students: Unsure sex of child
• Cafeteria staff: None

Trial design

6,269 participants in 3 patient groups

Schools with salad bars

Description:

Schools with salad bars

Treatment:

Other: Salad bar

Schools without salad bars

Description:

Schools without salad bars

Treatment:

Other: Waitlisted control

Schools with salad parts post COVID-19

Description:

A subset schools with salad bars that were examined pre-COVID-19 will undergo methods again.

Treatment:

Other: Salad bar post-COVID