Salad bars are springing up across the America’s public school, thanks to a national initiative. However, getting you kids to use these salad bars at school is another matter.
So how do you get your kids to eat at the school salad bar?
Researchers at Brigham Young University has found out that good, old-fashioned marketing works to get more kids to eat at school salad bars.
They found that students at schools with higher salad bar marketing are nearly three times as likely to use them.
Their study was published in the journal Health Education and Behavior.
According to the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, there are now about 4,800 salad bars in America’s public schools. About 50 percent of high school students have access to salad bars at schools, 39 percent of middle school kids and 31 percent of elementary school children.
In the study, 12 public schools in New Orleans were followed. Students’ use of the salad bars were tracked. The students were later surveyed.
The researchers found that marketing the salad bars improved usage among secondary school students. Also, female students used salad bars more than males.
The salad bars were marketed through signs throughout the schools. Information were also published about the salad bars in school publications and newsletters. The salad bars were also marketed on school web pages.
The researchers also recommend exposing your kids more to foods like they find in salad bars. The more they are expose to certain foods at home, the more likely they will eat those at schools.
So how about sticking up a sign on the fridge telling your kids, “Salad Bar Foods Are Yummy!”
Journal Reference:
Lori Andersen Spruance, Leann Myers, Keelia O’Malley, Donald Rose, Carolyn C. Johnson. Individual- and School-Level Factors Related to School-Based Salad Bar Use Among Children and Adolescents. Health Education & Behavior, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1090198116687713
