BYU Veggie Project

Our Project’s mission:

*Evaluate the degree to which different approaches increase the number of children eating fruits and vegetables as part of their school provided lunch.

We’ve designed an iPhone app that makes it easy to record the number of servings of veggies that each child eats and throws away during lunch. We use this data collection tool to accurately measure the degree to which different approaches increase veggie consumption or decrease waste.

*Examine how long a child must eat fruits and vegetable during lunch before it translates into a long run habit.

We’ve designed a special veggie token that schools can use to implement a short run rewards program. We’ve found that providing a small reward can increase the fraction of children eating a serving of fruits or vegetables from 30% up to nearly 90%. The real question, though, is how long this type of program would need to be in place before it translated into a long run change in children’s eating behavior. We are currently recruiting schools to participate in a study to examine this issue. If your school would like to participate please contact us at veggies@byu.edu and we can provide more information.