Does the location of fruits and vegetables in the cafeteria matter? Evidence from Elementary Schools

The power of the nudge to influence healthy eating habits has been documented in an increasing amount of research. In this project we examine situations in which schools must weigh the relative impact of different types of nudges and also the tradeoff of simultaneously helping one group while possibly harming another. We focus specifically on school decisions that are designed to increase the fraction of children who are eating fruits and vegetables as part of their school-provided lunch. We primarily focus on the decision of where to locate the fruit and vegetable items in the school cafeteria. Space constraints and the design of the serving area often force schools to make a tradeoff between providing a more convenient location for the fruits and vegetables, or placing them in a separate location that allows for a larger variety of items (in some cases this might even involve the ability to provide a salad bar with many options). We examine the relative impact of these sometimes competing choices (location or variety) that schools must make. We also examine a second policy in which the fruit and vegetable items are made available to all students in the school, regardless of whether they purchased a school lunch. In this setting, changes that make the fruits and vegetables more accessible to children purchasing a lunch may reduce accessibility to the children bringing a lunch from home.