Healthy SMART Schools program: Healthy School Meals Realized through Technology

Existing school-based obesity interventions have shown only modest effects on obesity prevalence in prior trials. One specific challenge not addressed in previous studies is the influence of student food choice at school. The ability to address this dietary “black box” during the school day is particularly important in low-income schools where most children receive breakfast and lunch at school. The goal of this project is to develop a technology-based system that tracks student food choices during school meals and relays this information to parents and teachers in conjunction with tailored health messages. This project features a unique collaboration among academic researchers and public health experts, a non-profit foundation with expertise in health literacy and health promotion, and a large Chicago charter school network that serves predominantly low-income Hispanic communities. The technology-based system will: (1) monitor students’ food intake at meals; (2) provide parents with tailored feedback and health messaging about nutrition; and (3) provide teachers with classroom-level feedback and tips for creating classroom-level incentives for healthy food choices. A comprehensive qualitative study involving parents, students, key school staff, and school administrators informed the design of the system, and a process for capturing plate waste (uneaten food) is being developed. The system will be tested in the spring of 2014 in one 6^th-grade classroom with revisions made as needed, and re-evaluated in a second larger school in the fall of 2014. This project sets the stage for further development and testing of a technology-based, multi-component childhood obesity intervention in underserved communities.