Increasing Fruit

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Increasing Fruit Vegetable Consumption in
Grades 2-4

• Tom Conner, Gail Finklestein, Samantha Hirth,
  Krista Reale Crystal Whitley

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Mission Statement

• Our mission is to provide school children with a
  program that will improve their nutritional
  status, help them to create healthy habits and
  maintain a healthy lifestyle.

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Focus Groups

• Quality of life issues for children?
• Parents, Teachers, Board of Education members
  Health and Exercise Students/Faculty

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Quality of Life Issues

• As a team, it was decided to base our program on
  the nutritional concerns we all shared for the
  children.

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Getting Specific

• Research was carried out to determine what
  specifically needed to be changed
• Literature Review
• Discussion with parents and teachers
• Conclusion was to increase fruit and vegetable
  consumption

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Benefits of Fruits Vegetables

• Important building block for good health later in
  life
• Provide vitamins and minerals needed for
  growth/development
• Healthy heart
• Disease protection
• Weight management

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Limited Resources

• Can we change the school lunch menu?
• Not enough resources
• Too difficult of a task
• Children must make smart choices!
• Fruits and veggies vs. junk food
• Real world decisions

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Research

• Children are rarely eating meals at home, and
  when they eat out, they are attracted to high fat
  and high calorie foods, while fruits and
  vegetables are out of the picture. -Dr. Sharron
  Dalton
• In a study done with school lunches, 50 of 4th
  graders served vegetables with their lunch did
  not eat them.

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Change is Possible

• Getting children to increase their fruit and
  vegetable intake is feasible
• According to Evelien Reinaerts, after repeated
  opportunities (5-10 times) to try new foods, the
  liking for the new foods generally increased,
  leading to greater intake.

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Target Population

• Children in grades 2-4 (ages 6-10)
• Also their parents and teachers!
• Young enough to establish good eating habits
• Old enough to understand nutritional concepts
• This population does not eat nearly enough fruits
  and vegetables as recommended by the USDA

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USDA Recommendations
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Location

• Elementary schools surrounding the Rowan
  University campus
• Easy access for Health and Exercise Science
  students/faculty
• Dorothy L. Bullock and Thomas E. Bowe schools
  (Glassboro, NJ)
• Franklin Township Elementary School

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Needs Assessment

• Surveys to parents and teachers
• Amount of fruit/vegetable education children were
  receiving
• How many servings they were eating
• Survey to children
• Assess feelings, attitudes and beliefs regarding
  fruits and vegetables
• After the program, same surveys given to compare
  results

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Parent Survey Insert

• Not everyone knows exactly what one serving size
  is for a fruit or vegetable
• A sheet that described serving sizes was included
  with the parent surveys
• Easier to accurately report number of servings
  children were currently eating

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Serving Sizes
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Needs Assessment Survey Results

• After reviewing the reported data from the
  parent, teacher and student surveys, it became
  evident how beneficial our program will be

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Major Findings

• Most parents and teachers are concerned about
  their kids current fruit/vegetable consumption
• On an average day, most of the children surveyed
  ate 0-3 total servings of fruits and vegetables
• Most children do not think it is important to eat
  fruits and vegetables
• Parents, Older children and Teachers were the top
  three reported role models to inspire the
  nutritional habits of children

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Goals Objectives

• Goal To provide a program for children in grades
  2-4 that will improve their nutritional status
  and habits
• Objectives
• Children will be able to explain the importance
  of good nutrition
• Children will be able to name 4 fruits and 4
  vegetables
• Children will increase their total daily fruit
  and vegetable consumption by 2 or more servings
• Parents will purchase and prepare more fruits and
  vegetables
• Parents and teachers will monitor childrens
  progress
• Teachers will incorporate what they learn into
  their own lessons

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Interventions Marketing

• Our program consists of several types of
  interventions and marketing strategies including
• Education
• Peer Modeling
• Telephone Counseling
• Brochures Flyers
• Parent Teacher Association Meetings
• Back to School Night / Parent Teacher Conferences
• Student Assembly
• Reward System

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Education

• The next step in our program is to educate the
  children about fruits and vegetables
• During a one-day intervention, students from the
  Health Promotion Fitness Management
  specialization at Rowan University will come
  speak at the school during an assembly
• Education, Modeling, Personal Experiences,
  Introducing the incentive program

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Incentive Program

• Each teacher will be provided with prizes and
  given a weekly chart to display all the students
  names.
• The chart will be hung up on the classroom wall
  so that everyone can see how many fruits and
  vegetables each child is eating and encourage
  friendly competition among students and classes.

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Incentive Program

• Fruit OR vegetable at school silver star
  sticker
• Fruit AND vegetable at school gold star sticker
• At the end of the week, the number of stickers
  will be counted and prizes will be dispensed
• 5 stickers pencil
• 4 stickers eraser
• 3 or fewer stickers fruit and vegetable stickers

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Winning Class

• In each school, the class that tallies the most
  stickers overall at the end of the 10 weeks will
  participate in a fruit and vegetable party.
• Rowan University students will cater the party
  with special treats for the class.

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Marketing

• Message For children to eat fruits and
  vegetables because they are an essential part of
  proper nutrition, play a key role in weight
  management and making changes early can prevent
  future problems.

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Marketing

• Marketing Goal To generate an interest in
  parents and teachers to participate in our
  nutrition program.
• Marketing Objectives
• 70 parents (approximately 50) from each school
  will attend one of the meetings where our program
  will be presented.
• 90 of teachers will attend one of the meetings
  where the program will be presented.
• 75 of students in each classroom will notice and
  understand the flyers posted up around the
  schools.

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Tracking Progress

• Sign-in-sheet at each presentation
• Survey and ask the children verbally about who
  has noticed the nutrition flyers posted up around
  the school

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Program Evaluation Strategies

• It will be evident we have met our goals when the
  surveys are reissued to the parents, teachers and
  students and we compare the results
• In a successful program, children will
• Demonstrate increased knowledge about fruits
  about vegetables
• Portray better attitudes towards eating fruits
  and vegetables
• Recognize how many servings of fruits and
  vegetables they consume
• Increase their daily fruit and vegetable intake
  by 2 or more servings

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Evaluation

• Impact
• Awareness of current fruit/vegetable intake and
  recommended number of servings
• Knowing benefits of eating more fruits/vegetables
• Better attitudes towards eating fruits/vegetables

• Outcome
• Increasing daily fruit/vegetable consumption by 2
  or more servings
• Continuing to eat recommended servings of fruits
  and vegetables in future
• Reevaluate 6 months and 1 year later

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Staff

• Directed by senior level college students in the
  Health Promotion and Fitness Management
  specialization at Rowan University
• Guided by highly qualified professors with many
  years of experience
• Contact hours instead of pay

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Budget

• Total budget is 2,943.90
• Paper/Ink
• Rewards poster board

• Food
• Transportation

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Funding

• This is a clearly needed program that will
  greatly improve the health of children
• We have the staff, tools and knowledge to create
  a successful program
• The only missing piece of the puzzle is the funds
  needed to complete this task

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Grant

• Our program should be funded by a grant
• Obviously needed
• Previously successful programs like ours
• Knowledgeable and eager staff
• Health and Exercise Science department
• Rowan University
• Matching funds

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The End