Buying Behaviors versus Building Community

Abstract

“Legislation is one thing; behavioral change is something else entirely.” This obsevation came from Nicole, a nutritionist employed by the USDA within its Food and Nutrition Service agency. We were discussing the challenge of getting school-age kids to eat differently. A few years back, the federal government introduced a new rule requiring schools to serve an extra $5.4 million worth of fruits and vegetables in lunchrooms across all fifty states daily. Nicole described this particular piece of legislation as “eye-opening,” for it made her realize that “offering healthier options and having kids actually eat healthy are two completely different challenges.” She added, only half-jokingly: “What that legislation really amounted to is it increased fruit and vegetable waste in our schools by some $5.4 million daily.” US schools are actually wasting $3.8 million of that $5.8 million daily investment, according to one study. Regardless of the actual figure, there is a lot of food being wasted in our schools—even more now, thanks to those new federal school-meal rules, which arose out of the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.