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Food and Nutrition
Section Newsletter
Spring 2007
Editor
Angela M. Odoms-Young, PhD
aodoms@niu.edu
Co-Editor
Sarah Forrestal
sgforrestal@yahoo.com
Message from the Chair
Patricia Markham Risica, DrPH
Assistant Professor (Research) of Community Health
Institute for Community Health Promotion
The Food and Nutrition Section (FNS) has been very active in recent months. I am very happy to report that the FNS conference program, after review of over 200 abstracts, is complete and ready for printing thanks to Sibylle Kranz. Also, several policies were submitted on behalf of FNS including the resubmitted trans fat resolution, a new food safety resolution, policy statements on breastfeeding (with Maternal and Child Health), sustainable food systems (with Environmental Health), and three policies on physical activity by our physical activity colleagues who are working toward starting their own section.
We are initiating a new Communications Committee to strategize the content of our various communication mechanisms including: the web site, e Communities (coming soon from APHA), a listserv or blast email system, and of course, the newsletter. Congratulations to all of our section members who have contributed to the section already this year and all of you who are helping to move FNS forward now.
The Newsletter content will focus on Public Health nutrition topics that are important and timely, and to highlight specific activities in the area. Angela Odoms-Young will again edit the Newsletter for FNS with the help of her Co-Editor, Sarah Forrestal. This edition of the newsletter focuses on Childhood Obesity. The topic for the fall Newsletter will be Food Safety. Start thinking about articles on programs, research and advocacy related to this important Public Health topic that can be shared through the Newsletter. Janice Adams King, RN, MS and Sarah Fein, PhD from the Food Safety committee will serve as co-editors. The deadline for fall newsletter submissions is August 17, 2007.
What are your interests? To meet all your informational needs, we would like to know more about the topical interests and professional environments of all our FNS members. Please take this very short survey to inform us all about your work.
Please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=182753873036
and complete our quick survey and tell us more about you, if you have not already done so.
Please take a few minutes to consider how you would like to be active in the section! There is certainly plenty of opportunity for all, and the more we all work together, the more effective APHA can be on issues related to Food and Nutrition.
Thanks for all of your ideas and energy,
Patti Risica
NEW ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER!!
Brown University
Box G-S121-8
Providence, RI 02903
401-863-6553
401-863-6551 - fax
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Special Section on Childhood Obesity: Lessons from Practice, Research and Advocacy
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Photovoice Toolkit to Assess the Nutrition Environment in Schools
Lynn Fredericks is the author or “Cooking Time Is Family Time” (1999, Morrow), and founder of FamilyCook Productions, in NYC
Those of us who work in the field developing programmatic nutrition education strategies are no less eager than our academic colleagues to see evidence-based approaches for child overweight prevention. Nonetheless, we often lack the financial resources to properly evaluate and publish promising approaches. Consequently, it was with great interest that I listened closely as Marsha J. Spense presented at the 2005 APHA Annual Meeting on her research to address quality of the foods available in Tennessee public schools, “Using Photovoice to Assess the School Nutrition Environment.”
Marsha detailed the use of Photovoice by a group of adult leaders representing all the stakeholders across the school community (teachers, administrators, parents, fitness staff and school food service). The photos were categorized and presented by the team members who took the photos, and depicted all manner of ways in which food was available at school, including fundraisers, school celebrations, birthdays, etc.
The photo of a teachers’ lounge depicting several different drink cups from several different fast food restaurants said it all. No adult could view that photo and not conclude there was a problem with modeling to children about healthy eating at that school. In fact, as the study results bore out, Photovoice was a powerful tool in the school environment to help develop consensus within the school community – especially among parents – about the nutritional issues, and to help identify priorities and develop the necessary ‘buy-in’ to create change.
As I sat in the session, the program developer inside me was chomping at the bit to apply this research in the field. After all, in September the following year, schools would be required to have their School Wellness Policies in place; what a great tool this could prove to be to assist with critical buy-in across school communities to implement and enforce the new policies.
I contacted Marsha Spense after conference, and she could not have been more delighted to learn that my organization, FamilyCook Productions, wished to gain her permission and assistance to make her research methodologies accessible to schools. With Marsha’s assistance, we set about developing an ‘electronic toolkit’ that described the evidence-based processes in an easy to follow, step-by-step format, for free download off our website. Since November 2006, thousands of schools across the US have downloaded the tool and the feedback is encouraging (we hope to present more research on its use at our 2008 meeting). In fact, the tool includes a parallel activity with students taking photos and presenting their findings to their peers at a school assembly.
Clearly, the best outcomes of our Section’s scientific research sessions would be to inform practice by promising research. I personally look forward to more opportunities to put my colleagues’ breakthrough methodologies into user-friendly practice modules for the benefit of communities far and wide.
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Dollars and Sense: The Financial Impact of Selling Healthier School Foods
Gail Woodward-Lopez, MPH, RD is Associate Director, Center for Weight and Health at University of California at Berkeley
Two pilot studies conducted by the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health in conjunction with several other partner agencies suggest that when nutrition standards are applied to “competitive” foods and beverages, school food service departments can benefit financially. The two studies examined the impact of the nutrition standards as specified in California’s Senate Bill 19. These nutrition standards were developed in response to rising rates of child obesity, and primarily limited the sugar and fat content of snack foods and sweetened beverages that are sold outside the school meal program, in food service a la carte, school stores, snack bars, vending machines, etc.
Schools were concerned about potential loss in revenue if sales decreased after switching to healthier options. Sales of snack foods and beverages did decrease in most cases, but participation in the meal program increased. The gains in meal sales and reimbursements more than compensated for the losses in a la carte sales by the food service department. At 65% of the 20 middle and high schools, food service experienced an increase in total revenues (a la carte combined with meal sales) after implementing the nutrition standards; another 25% experienced very little change in total revenues; and 10% experienced a decrease. Best of all, students were buying fewer snacks and sweetened beverages and eating meals instead.
Other campus-based groups that depended on food and beverage sales did not fare as well. Most experienced declines in revenue after implementing the standards. However, in most cases losses were only a few hundred or a few thousand dollars per year. Two of the biggest volume operations actually experienced increases in sales, primarily because they renovated their facilities, carefully selected their healthy products and engaged students in selecting and marketing the healthy options. These results suggest that healthy alternatives can be profitable.
In order to reduce dependency on a la carte sales, school food service departments made several improvements to their meal program such as updating their menus, enhancing the eating and serving areas, and marketing the program with student input. Some also had to upgrade their kitchen facilities to allow for preparation and storage of fresh foods on site. On average school foods service departments spent about $50,000 per school from grant funds to upgrade their programs. This additional funding may be critical if food service is to effectively draw students to the meal program when a la carte sales decline.
These findings suggest that nutrition standards can be a win-win for students and school food service departments: students improve their eating patterns and school food service may improve or at least may not worsen their bottom line. However, to get these results, investments need to be made in order to enable food service to provide healthy meals that appeal to students. Furthermore, a decline in a la carte and other competitive foods and beverage sales may be a necessary part of this equation. Therefore other campus groups would be well advised to shift to non-food and beverage forms of fundraising. Additionally, care should be taken when considering the promotion of snack foods and beverages that are “compliant” with nutrition standards but would still compete with the school meal program, thereby potentially diluting the positive impacts described here.
For more information, visit www.cnr.berkeley.edu/cwh/activites/LEAF.shtml for a complete copy of the LEAF (Linking Education, Activity and Food) study report and www.cnr.berkeley.edu/cwh/PDFs/Dollars_and_Sense_FINAL_3.07.pdf
for a policy brief on the financial impact analysis.
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The Center for Science in the Public Interest: Childhood Obesity Policy Priority
Dr. Batada is currently a Nutrition Policy Fellow at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in Washington, DC.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been working with the American Public Health Association to improve the nutritional quality of school foods.
Over the last decade, schools have made progress to improve the nutritional quality of school lunches and breakfasts. However, foods sold outside of the school lunch and breakfast programs – out of vending machines, school stores, a la carte in the cafeteria, and fundraisers – are too often nutritionally poor.
To assist schools in improving nutrition and other aspects of the school environment, CSPI worked with 50 other members of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity – or NANA – to develop model policies that serve as a strong set of policies to work toward over time. Those policies and background materi |