Effect of a la carte and snack bar foods at school on children's lunchtime intake of fruits and vegetables.

OBJECTIVES: To compare lunch fruit, juice, and vegetable (FJV) intake of fourth-grade students who receive only National School Lunch Program meals and fifth-grade students who also have access to a school snack bar and to compare FJV intake by meal source among fifth-grade students.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study: students completed FJV preference questionnaires and 5 days of lunch food records in classrooms.

SUBJECTS/SETTING: 312 fourth- and 282 fifth-grade students in south Texas.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mean FJV consumption.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, analysis of variance, analysis of covariance.

RESULTS: Fourth-grade students (n = 312) consumed significantly more fruits, juices, and vegetables (0.80 serving) than fifth-grade students (n = 282) (0.60 serving). Students whose parents reported a high school education or less consumed more regular and total vegetables than students whose parents reported some college or higher education. There were no interaction effects among gender, grade, ethnic, or family education groups. Fifth-grade students who ate only snack bar meals consumed significantly less total fruits, juices, and vegetables (0.40 serving) than fifth-grade students who ate school lunch meals (0.82 serving). Controlling for FJV preferences did not change the main effect for grade level in the FJV consumption models.

APPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: FJV consumption during school lunch is low. School foodservice staff should identify FJV items that middle school students prefer and increase availability of those items in middle school cafeterias and snack bars.