S

L

F

M

LaE

TsRWTipst6c(w(erpippceir

F

TCC

Lpws

Sia2iIssasAhSf[s((famle

FIt

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

POSTER SESSION: SCIENCE/EDUCATION/MANAGEMENT/FOODSERVICES/CULINARY/RESEARCH

Attitudes and Beliefs of Foodservice Staff and EducatorsPrior to Implementing a Farm-to-School Program

Author(s): M. Swisher, J. A. Albrecht; Nutrition and Healthciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE

earning Outcome: To determine the attitudes and beliefs offoodservice staff and educators before implementation of a Farmto School Program.

Supportive stakeholders (foodservice staff and educators) whosupport the Farm to School Program will encourage itsdevelopment and implementation within their school. Twoattitude/belief surveys using a likert scale were developed (onefor foodservice staff; one for educators) based on issues gleanedfrom the literature. Concepts related to local foods included onthe foodservice survey were: their attitudes and beliefs aboutchanges in cooking techniques, student food choices, localsupport, implementation, work load, and adequate faculties.Concepts related to local foods included on the educator surveywere: their attitudes and beliefs about implementation of localfoods into school lunch, coordination of classroom activities,childhood nutrition, and local support. Both surveys weredelivered to four schools for distribution to foodservice staff andeducators and completed surveys were sent to the researcher.The average attitude/belief score for food service professionalswas 61.10 out of 90 (n�42). The average attitude/belief score foreducators was 66.79 out of 85 (n�136). For both surveys, apositive correlation between age and score was found; a trendtoward significance was found for the educators (p�0.055) but nosignificance was found for foodservice staff. The results provideinsights to stakeholder support (foodservice staff and educators)for implementation of local foods into their school lunch programand to develop strategies to bring about attitude/belief change forsuccessful implementation of a Farm to School program.

Funding Disclosure: USDA F2S

Implementation of a Comprehensive Health Curriculum

Author(s): M. A. Hanes,1 E. F. Molaison,1 J. R. Kolbo2; 1Nutrition andood Systems, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS,

2School of Social Work, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg,S

earning Outcome: After the abstract presentation, the participant will beble to identify the improved implementation efforts of Mississippi Healthducation.

he increasing rate of childhood obesity has led to the enactment ofeveral legislative mandates. The Child Nutrition and WICeauthorization Act of 2004 required all schools to implement a Localellness Policy. However, evaluation of the policy has been limited.

herefore, the purposes of this study were to assess the degree ofmplementation of the health education requirements of the wellnessolicy in 2008 and to compare results to findings from 2006. Surveys wereent to all Mississippi public school principals using an on-line survey. Aotal of 540 principals of the 911 responded to the survey (70%). Overall,5.5% of the principals reported fully implementing a policy for aomprehensive health education program. In 2008, 82% of the studentsincreased from 51.2% in 2006) received a health education curriculum,ith the highest rates of implementation seen in elementary schools

88.03%). Elementary schools also were most likely to have healthducation taught by classroom teachers (72%). While middle schoolseported using mostly Physical Education teachers (56.56%). Theercentage of teachers that were certified to teach health educationncreased from 48.2% to 59.1%, with high schools having the highestercentage of certified teachers (82.75%). The high percentage ofrincipals reporting implementation of a health curriculum taught byertified faculty members is encouraging. Much success also is evident inlementary schools, with moderate success in middle and high schools,ndicating a possible venue for interventions to improve health andeverse obesity trends.

unding Disclosure: Bower Foundation

A-66 / September 2011 Suppl 2—Abstracts Volume 111 Number 9

Factors Influencing Participation in School-Provided Breakfast andSchool-Provided Lunch during Fourth Grade

Author(s): S. D. Baxter,1 C. M. Devlin,1 C. J. Finney,1 J. A. Royer,1 J. M.ebbs,2 C. H. Guinn1; 1Institute for Families in Society, University of Southarolina, Columbia, SC, 2Department of Statistics, University of Southarolina, Columbia, SC

earning Outcome: Describe whether children’s participation in school-rovided meals (breakfast and lunch) during fourth-grade differs by sex,eekday, month, school year, absenteeism, socioeconomic status, and location of

chool breakfast

chool-meal programs are valuable sources of nutrition for children. Wenvestigated differences in school-meal participation among fourth-grade children indietary-reporting validation study at 17 and 8 schools during the 2005-06 and

006-07 school years, respectively; 6 and 7 of the respective schools had breakfastn the classroom (BIC) and the others had breakfast in the cafeteria (BCAF).nformation about 180 possible days of participation in the school-breakfast andchool-lunch programs for each of 1,060 children (91% Black) was obtained fromchool-district administrative records. This was linked with data on schoolbsenteeism and socioeconomic status (SES; eligibility for free- or reduced-pricechool meals) from the state’s Office of Research and Statistics. For breakfast,NOVA showed participation differences by weekday (lowest for Monday [18.7];ighest for Tuesday [21.8]; p�0.0001), month (lowest for December [7.2]; highest foreptember [12.5]; p�0.0001), SES (lowest for full-price status [49.6]; highest for

ree-meal status [114.1]; p�0.0001), school-breakfast location (lower for BCAF68.5] than BIC [127.3]; p�0.0001), and absenteeism (p�0.0001), but not sex orchool year. For lunch, ANOVA showed participation differences by weekdaylowest for Monday [27.6 days]; highest for Tuesday [31.4]; p�0.0001), monthlowest for December [10.1]; highest for September [17.7]; p�0.0001), SES (lowestor full-price status [129.8]; highest for free-meal status [152.8]; p�0.0001), andbsenteeism (p�0.0001), but not sex or school year. [Values in brackets are theean number of days.] Although results for absenteeism, SES, and school-breakfast

ocation were expected, results for weekday and month were surprising and requirexploration in future studies.

unding Disclosure: Grants R21HL088617 and R01HL074358 (Principalnvestigator – SD Baxter) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ofhe National Institutes of Health

Promotion of Healthful Food Choices in a College FoodserviceOperation

Author(s): M. Dallmeyer, C. Young, P. Monaco, A. Tallyn, A. Heitz;Family and Consumer Sciences, Bradley Universitiy, Peoria, IL

Learning Outcome: Four merchandising initiatives were used topromote the purchase of healthful food in a college foodservice.Increased exposure to healthful food choices and information resultedin slight increase in the frequency of healthful food selection.

College students tend to form lifelong eating habits that will impacttheir future health. Data indicate that three out of ten college studentsare either overweight or obese. In an attempt to help students makehealthful food selections, dietetic interns promoted healthful food optionsat a late-night, weekend foodservice for college students. Four initiativespromoted healthful food selection: (1) healthful menu additions; (2) listsof healthful food choices at point of sale; (3) oral suggestions of healthfulfood choices; and (4) nutritional information (including calories, fat,saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium) of the most popular menu items.One semester of sales records were reviewed to identify the totalnumber of items and the number of healthy food items sold each night.Approximately 750 students were served each weekend for 14 weekendsand over 2100 items were prepared for customers each weekend.Despite efforts to encourage the selection of healthful food items, thepopularity index of these items remained either low or unchangedduring this time. The majority of food items purchased by students werehigh in calories, saturated fat, and sodium. Less than 1 % of thestudents chose healthful food items each weekend although the numberof healthful food items selected increased slightly as the promotion timeperiod increased. This improvement in sales suggest that with continuedmerchandising of healthful food options and associated consumereducation support, improvement of the consumption of healthful food bycollege students should result.

Funding Disclosure: None