Chefs Move to Schools: A Pilot Examination of How Chef-Created Dishes Can Increase School Lunch Participation and Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Just, David R., Brian Wansink, and Andrew S. Hanks (2014), “Chefs Move to Schools: A Preliminary Examination of How Chef-created Dishes can Increase School Lunch Participation and Fruit and Vegetable Intake, Appetite, 83:242-247.

25 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2014 Last revised: 29 Apr 2017

See all articles by David Just

David Just

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

Brian Wansink

Retired - Cornell University

Andrew Hanks

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

Date Written: September 8, 2014

Abstract

To demonstrate the feasibility of introducing a main dish designed by a professional chef in the National School Lunch Program and to document the impact on child participation, a chef was recruited to design pizza to be served in an upstate New York school district. The pizza was designed to meet both the cost and ingredient requirements of the NSLP. High school students were significantly more likely to select the pizza prepared by the chef. While the chef had no significant impact on main dish consumption given selection, more students took a vegetable and vegetable consumption increased by 16.5%. This pilot study demonstrates the plausibility of using chefs to boost participation in the school lunch program, and potentially increase nutrition through side selection, among high school students.

Keywords: Food Preferences, Food Habit, Child Behavior, Child Nutrition Sciences

Suggested Citation

Just, David and Wansink, Brian and Hanks, Andrew, Chefs Move to Schools: A Pilot Examination of How Chef-Created Dishes Can Increase School Lunch Participation and Fruit and Vegetable Intake (September 8, 2014). Just, David R., Brian Wansink, and Andrew S. Hanks (2014), “Chefs Move to Schools: A Preliminary Examination of How Chef-created Dishes can Increase School Lunch Participation and Fruit and Vegetable Intake, Appetite, 83:242-247., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2493288 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2493288

David Just

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management ( email )

Ithaca, NY
United States
6072552086 (Phone)

Brian Wansink (Contact Author)

Retired - Cornell University ( email )

Andrew Hanks

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management ( email )

Ithaca, NY
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
78
Abstract Views
1,197
Rank
559,388
PlumX Metrics