| Project: Improving School Lunch Decisions With Fast Lane Meal Deals |
| Award Year: 2010 |
| Amount of award, fiscal 2010: $40,000.00 |
| Institution: Pennsylvania State University |
| Principal Investigator: Amit Sharma |
| Status: Ongoing |
| Detailed Objective: This project will investigate the effects on children’s diets of manipulating time and effort costs to promote healthy food choices. Specifically, the project will develop a “fast-service-lane” strategy for school cafeteria service that offers “meal deals” that bundle a healthy lunch choice. “Meal deals” will be designed on the basis of criteria including nutritional goals, popularity, and profit margin. The study will investigate the effects of the fast-lane meal deals intervention on students’ lunch choices by using a sample of Pennsylvania middle schools serving 7th and 8th grade students. The project will also assess the costs and benefits of implementing the “meal deal” and “fast-service lane” to develop a decisionmaking framework for school food service. |
| Topic: Behavioral Economics, Child Nutrition, Dietary Intake and Quality, School Lunch and Breakfast |