The Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Replacing Whole Apples with Sliced in the National School Lunch Program

Shelly Palmer, Jessica Jarick Metcalfe, Brenna Ellison, Toni Kay Wright, Lindsey Sadler, Katherine Hinojosa, Jennifer McCaffrey and Melissa Pflugh Prescott
Additional contact information
Shelly Palmer: Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Jessica Jarick Metcalfe: Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Brenna Ellison: Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Layfayette, IN 47907, USA
Toni Kay Wright: Office of Extension and Outreach, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Lindsey Sadler: Office of Extension and Outreach, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Katherine Hinojosa: Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Jennifer McCaffrey: Office of Extension and Outreach, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Melissa Pflugh Prescott: Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-7

Abstract: The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) serves 29.6 million lunches each day. Schools must offer ½ a cup of fruit for each lunch tray. Much of this fruit may be wasted, leaving the schools in a dilemma. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the consumption of whole vs. sliced apples and determine the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. Researchers weighed apple waste at baseline and three post-intervention time points in one rural Midwest school. The costs of the intervention were collected from the school. The cost-effectiveness analysis estimates how often apples need to be served to offset the costs of the slicing intervention. A total of ( n = 313) elementary student students participated. Students consumed significantly more sliced as compared to whole apples in intervention months 3 ( β = 21.5, p < 0.001) and 4 ( β = 27.7, p < 0.001). The intervention cost was USD 299. The value of wasted apple decreased from USD 0.26 at baseline to USD 0.23 wasted at post-intervention. The school would need to serve 9403 apples during the school year (54 times) to cover the expenses of the intervention. In conclusion, serving sliced apples may be a cost-effective way to improve fruit consumption during school lunch.

Keywords: school nutrition; food waste; implementation science; behavioral economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13157/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13157/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13157-:d:701736

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().