Researchers offer food for thought on plate waste study

LYNN – Giving kids more school meal options might make them eat more food and toss fewer half-eaten lunches into trash barrels, a Project Bread researcher has concluded.Scott Richardson, research director for the Boston-based hunger prevention organization, and his team spent the 2012-2013 academic year in four Lynn schools watching what – and how – middle and elementary school students eat and what they throw out at the end of their lunch period.Local educators are reviewing the “plate waste” findings and keeping in mind Richardson?s statement that half of the calorie intake for Lynn students qualifying for free and reduced price meals comes from school breakfasts and lunches.?It?s critical,” said Richardson.The Project Bread study conclusions tossed some youthful eating habit stereotypes out the door. More than two-thirds of students observed by Richardson?s team chose to eat lunch offerings that included vegetables, but four out of 10 of the students ate less than half of the vegetables they were served.Students mostly “ate what they were served,” to quote an old parental reminder, but four out of 10 elementary school students tended to shy away from some of the meal options offered at lunch.Project Bread monitored Marshall sixth- through eighth-graders and Cobbet, Ingalls and Harrington first- through fifth-graders to gauge their lunch-eating habits. After each meal, the team collected food trays and weighed thrown-away food.Local students will eat fruit at lunch and they like flavored milk – but don?t count on them drinking more than half to two-thirds of a small carton. Project Bread studied eating habits in other Massachusetts schools and even brought chefs into schools in other cities to find foods students will eat and not eat.Richardson said young eaters will try new foods if they are repeatedly encouraged to do so.?We?ve found you have to offer something 12 to 15 times before they gobble it down,” he said.He urged Lynn educators to solicit bids for school food contracts with the contract selection priority focused, in part, on contractors who are willing to provide students with a variety of meal options.?Competition will drive improvements to the meals,” he said.He said researchers were stunned one afternoon to find nearly every meal returned uneaten on students? trays. It took some additional research to find out why the meals were so unpopular – the students couldn?t peel away the plastic wrapping covering the meal container.