Effects of Point-of-Purchase Marketing on Selection of Vegetables in a University Greek House Food service

Excessive weight gain and other health issues have been inversely related to fruit and vegetable consumption, yet these items are often lacking in many college students’ diets. The purpose of this project was to determine if a two-week point-of-purchase intervention promoting vegetables would have an effect on the amount of vegetables selected from a sorority house salad bar. Educational point-of-purchase marketing materials placed at the front of the foodservice line after the first week for the final two weeks. Vegetables served and remaining were weighedthroughout the study. Data was analyzed using Analysis of Variance to determine differences in weekly means of total vegetables selected, followed by Student-Newman-Kewles Test to separate the means when differences were found. Student’s t-tests were conducted on the weekly means for each vegetable to determine differences over time.Only tomato selection significantly increased from week 1 to week 2. However, significant differences in the means were found between weeks 2 and 3 for edamame and tomatoes and between weeks 1 and 3 for cucumber, edamame, and tomatoes. Point-ofpurchase marketing did increase the selection of vegetables.