WHAT
The Eat Your Colors Every Day: Salad Bar and Salad Options Pilot Project is
a healthy eating program for schools by the Produce for Better Health Foundation – the
same people who bring you 5 A Day. The project is funded by a grant from
the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services – the same
people who bring you Fresh from Florida.
HOW
The purpose of the Eat Your Colors Every Day: Salad Bar and Salad Options Pilot
Project is to increase student consumption of fresh produce, particularly
Florida grown crops, by implementing, enhancing, and expanding Salad Bars
and a variety of Salad Options in Florida schools. It includes:
- Changes in school foodservice operations
- Promotions and marketing
- Nutrition education activities
The objectives of the Eat Your Colors Every Day: Salad Bar and Salad Options
Pilot Project are to:
- Increase students’ consumption of fruits and vegetables.
- Develop and test foodservice training, promotion, and nutrition education materials.
WHO
Florida pilot school systems school year 2002-2003:
- Broward County
- Hillsborough County
- Palm Beach County
- Pinellas County
Florida pilot school systems school year 2003-2004:
- Collier County
- Miami-Dade County
- Highlands County
- Palm Beach County
- Pasco County
- Pinellas County
- Polk County
- Sarasota County
WHY
Eating and obesity trends among today’s youth reveal that nationally:
- Only 14% of school-aged children met the target of 2 servings of fruit daily
- Only 17% met the target of 3 servings of vegetables a day (as recommended in
the Food Guide Pyramid)1
- Children’s mean daily intake of fruit is 1.4 servings1
- Children’s mean intake of vegetables is 2.6 servings1
- The prevalence of overweight children has doubled in the last two decades and
the prevalence of overweight adolescents has tripled over the same time period2
- Trends among Florida youth reveal that:
- 24% are overweight or at risk of being overweight3
- Only 20% eat 5 or more servings of fruit and vegetables daily3
SUPPORT MATERIALS
The 5 A Day The Color Way, Dole, and Crayola brand have created an innovative,
educational program that teaches children the importance of eating a variety
of colorful, nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables every day. The program,
called “There’s A Rainbow on My Plate,” was distributed
nationally in March 2003 and is available for use in all pilot elementary
schools.
The classroom curriculum includes exciting educational materials for teachers
such as activity pages, posters, coloring books, and take-home literature
for students in grades K-6.
A variety of promotional materials are available to help promote 5 A
Day The Color Way in the school cafeteria. These include a foodservice
promotion booklet, posters, color signs, a banner, Color Way guides, bookmarks, book covers
and other items.
Produce associations, fruit and vegetable marketing departments and health
organizations can support this effort by offering educational materials.
DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
The first year of the pilot project had a two part evaluation component funded
by the National Cancer Institute:
- Plate waste studies twice during the school year.
- An overall evaluation to analyze purchasing information, student participation,
food production and consumption data, school demographics, and foodservice
personnel costs.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
The Eat Your Colors Every Day: Salad Bar and Salad Options Pilot Project
will:
- Replicate and field test foodservice, promotion, and nutrition education
models developed by the original pilot schools in some 25 schools in the
school year 2003-2004 Florida pilot districts
- Expand model testing to a small number of schools in three additional
states in school year 2003-2004; Kansas, Oregon, and South Carolina.
- Disseminate foodservice, promotion, and nutrition education models, and
other resources nationally for school year 2004-2005.
PROJECT STEERING COMMITTEE
The Eat Your Colors Every Day: Salad Bar and Salad Options Pilot Project Steering
Committee is composed of representatives from a variety of state and national
public and private agencies and organizations involved in education, health,
nutrition, and foodservice, as well as the producer and supplier community.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Shelly Terry
School Foodservice Consultant
Produce for Better Health Foundation
E-mail shellterr@msn.com
Phone 205-739-0027
------------------------------------------------------
1. USDA, FNS, Gleason and Suitor. Changes in children’s diets: 1989-1991
to 1994-1996, 2001.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept. of Health and Human Services,
Prevalence of Overweight among Children and Adolescents: United States 1999.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept. of Health and Human Services,
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System: 2001 Florida Summary Results.
|
