Can Student-Driven Changes Increase Salad Bar Usage in Schools?

Increasing student salad bar participation may increase students’ consumption of fruits and vegetables while decreasing their risk of chronic disease. This study observed student perception, experience, and participation of the school salad bar in two Mississippi high schools. The subjects were students’ age 15-18 years old (n=617 from the control school and 560 from the intervention school). After baseline salad bar participation was collected at the intervention school, students from both schools were surveyed to determine pre-treatmentperception and experience of the salad bar, measuring factors such as salad bar food quality, staff responsiveness and empathy, and program reliability, The information from this data was then used to implement changesto the salad bar at the intervention school. Student perception and experience was evaluated again, after six weeks,with a survey at the intervention school. T-test analysis found that implementing student-driven changes significantly increased participation by 4.43%. Perception and experience of the salad bar increased favorably in 90% of survey factors from pre-intervention to postintervention. A linear regression found that student selection of the salad bar increased from 6.9% preintervention to 11.4% post-intervention. These findings show that incorporating student-driven changes can increase salad bar participation in a short-term intervention.

Keywords: salad bar usage, fruit and vegetable consumption, USDA school lunch program.