Effect of a Centrally-Procured School Snack Program Vs. a Traditional School Snack Program on Children’s Dietary Intake: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT

Less than one-third of Canadian children consume the recommended five daily servings of FV. This cRCT aims to assess how a 10-week centrally-procured school food program (intervention) influences consumption of FV compared to a traditional program (control). Sixty elementary schools took part, including 2,422 children. Dietary intake during the school day was assessed using a new tool: “Pupils Eating At School.” There were no significant improvements in servings or instances of FV, but a small, statistically significant increase in consumption of milk and alternatives was found. Future research should consider other strategies to nudge children toward trying FV at school.

KEYWORDS:

• Child health
• schools
• snacks
• healthy eating
• randomized controlled trial

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the students, families, and school staff involved in this study. Our team would also like to acknowledge the project coordinators, research assistants, and volunteers from the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory (HEAL) who assisted with data collection for this project.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author Contribution

Conceptualization, J.A.S and J.A.G.; methodology, K.D.C., L.W.M, and J.A.S.; formal analysis, J.A.S., K.D.C.; writing – original draft preparation, K.D.C.; writing – review and editing, J.A.S and L.W.M.; All authors have read and agreed the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data described in the manuscript will be made available upon request pending ethics approval.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a Weston Seeding Food Innovation Grant (SFI16-LOI-064). We are also grateful for trainee support provided by the Children’s Health Research Institute/Children’s Health Foundation (L.W.M.). Funders did not have any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, writing, or publication of this study.