Food Assistance and Nutrition Programs: Research Funding Opportunities

Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs
David R. Just
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

The Center will facilitate new and innovative research on the application of behavioral economic theory to child nutrition program operations and activities, leading to program improvements that will benefit children's diets and health; broaden social scientist participation in such research, and disseminate research findings to key stakeholder groups, including other researchers, policy and program officials, and the general public.

Grant: $1,000,000

Using Nudges From Cafeterias and Parents To Encourage Healthy Food Choices at School
Karen Cullen
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention based on behavioral economics theory that encourages students to make healthy food choices in the school cafeteria by connecting the cafeteria and the home, via "nudges. Specifically, participating school cafeterias in Houston, TX, will market targeted healthy foods via messaging and presentations, and foodservice staff will encourage children's selection of the targeted foods as the children go through the serving line. Coordinated parent communications about the lunch menus and targeted foods will be made available via electronic technology (e.g., website, Facebook, Twitter).

Grant: $175,000

Incentivizing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Elementary Schools
Gregory Madden
Utah State University, Logan, UT

This project will evaluate a school-based incentives program designed using behavioral economics theory and its effectiveness in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in a sample of Utah elementary schoolchildren. The incentives program conjointly uses role models and rewards to encourage repeated tasting of fruits and vegetables, with escalating goals designed to gradually increase fruit and vegetable consumption and establish new eating habits.

Grant: $350,000

Can Default Options and Incentives Improve Food Choices at School?
Joseph Price
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

This project will test the effectiveness of behavioral economics-based interventions that employ small, feasible changes in school food choice options to improve children's food choices. Examples include using default options, providing small incentives for consuming fruits and vegetables, increasing the variety of fruit and vegetable options, changing fruit and vegetable location to increase visibility and accessibility, altering the choices available in vending machines or school stores, and allowing children to consume fruits and vegetables earlier in the day. The experimental interventions will take place in several Utah schools.

Grant: $150,000

Nudging High School Students Toward Better School Lunch Food Choices: Planning for Behavioral Economic Interventions in West Virginia
Cheryl Brown
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

This project will identify potential behavioral economic interventions to promote healthy food choices by students in West Virginia high schools. It will assess the current school lunch environment in a sample of high school cafeterias in three counties across northern West Virginia. Findings will be used to determine acceptable, appropriate interventions that could be implemented in high schools to test how the use of behavioral economic principles could influence students to choose healthier options. A proposal for funding studies of behavioral economic interventions will be developed, as will a planning template that can be used at high schools throughout the state.

Grant: $30,000

Testing a Food Choice Innovation for Middle School Cafeterias
Priscilla Connors
University of North Texas, Denton, TX

This project will develop and pilot test an innovative strategy, based on behavioral economics principles, for encouraging middle school students to make more nutritious choices from lunchtime cafeteria options. Researchers will collect data on menus, food choices, consumption, and plate waste in selected Texas middle school cafeterias, and will observe the choice architecture in those cafeterias. Data will be used to identify potential strategies to encourage nutritious choices and decrease waste while maintaining cafeteria revenues and minimally affecting cafeteria operations. The most promising innovative strategy will be selected and pilot tested in two middle school cafeterias.

Grant: $30,000

Drawing Attention to Healthy Choices With Lighting
Ann Ferris
University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT

This project will assess how successfully cafeteria lighting can be manipulated makes fruit and vegetables stand out and change student food choice behavior. This pilot study will be implemented over a four month period in two Connecticut middle schools matched for cafeteria layout and similar food offerings using a crossover research design. Cafeteria data on food selection will be used to assess effectiveness.

Grant: $30,000

Using Positive Deviance Principles To Identify Best Practices of Choice Architecture and Build Research Capacity With School Food Authorities
Deana Hildebrand
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

This project will draw on behavioral economics theories to identify affordable, acceptable, and sustainable choice-architecture-based strategies to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among middle school students. It will gather information on current relevant practices in Oklahoma middle schools; compile an inventory of successful choice-architecture-based methods of improving food choices; and conduct a statewide forum with school foodservice professionals to introduce them to the use of choice architecture in school cafeteria settings and establish a network of school foodservice staff interested in testing choice-architecture-based innovations in school cafeterias.

Grant: $30,000

Smarter Choices Through Nutritional Report Cards
David Just
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

This project will use behavioral economics theory of informational nudges and social norm effects to examine if nutritional report cards sent home to parents influence the amount of foods and type of foods that are selected by elementary school children. Nutritional report cards will use school cafeteria point of sale data to provide information on food selections children make at school. The study will take place in two elementary schools, with a treatment class receiving a weekly report to parents on items purchased by the child as well as the amount purchased relative to others within the class; the comparison class will not receive the weekly report.

Grant: $30,000

Menu Modification for Lincoln Parish Child Nutrition Program
Mary Murimi
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA

This project will test whether strategies based on principles of behavioral economics can increase student acceptance of nutritionally improved school lunch menus. Current school menus will be modified to meet standards based on the USDA School Meals Initiative and the Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Baseline student acceptance of those menus will be determined. A three-week pilot study will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of selected strategies based on behavioral economics theory in facilitating student acceptance of the nutritionally improved menu.

Grant: $30,000

Developing Research Capacity To Test Behavioral Economic Interventions in Child Nutrition Programs
Marla Reicks
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

This project will support development of a collaborative team with diverse disciplinary backgrounds to pursue experimental studies in child foodservice settings that apply behavioral economic strategies to improve the healthfulness of children's food choices and diets. The first team activity will be a pilot study of the effect of portion sizes of fruits and vegetables served with school lunch on children's intake. The team will also develop proposals for future projects.

Grant: $30,000

Improving School Lunch Decisions With Fast Lane Meal Deals
Amit Sharma
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

This project will develop a "fast-service-lane" strategy for school cafeteria service that offers "meal deals" that bundle a healthy lunch choice. The project will investigate the effectiveness of this behavioral economics-based strategy of offering time incentives for healthy lunch choices and assess costs and benefits for school food services.

Grant: $40,000

Children's Food Choices: Understanding Defaults
Melayne McInnes
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

This project will use behavioral economics theories and methods to explore the short-term and long-term effects of changing defaults on children's food choices and preferences, compared with interventions that seek to improve knowledge about healthy choices or provide financial incentives.

Grant: $25,000

Influence of Developmental Differences on Children's Responses to Information on Foods
Sean Cash
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

This project will build on current research on behavioral economics to investigate how the response of schoolchildren to food attributes is influenced by individual differences in cognitive and language ability, executive functioning, dietary knowledge, and age, and the implications for designing policies to improve dietary health.

Grant: $25,000

Is Healthy Eating Viral? Improving Understanding of How Social Networks Can Be Used To Influence School Food Choices
Helen Jensen
Iowa State University, Ames, IA

This project will draw on behavioral economics research to investigate how social networks can be used to influence children's school food choices through imitation of nutritional habits, social learning, and social influence (adopting friends' preferences). The study will develop and pilot test a plan for investigating effects of social networks on school food choices, especially for middle and high school students.

Grant: $25,000