Students’ Feedback to Improve the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) in Indiana

Abstract

Objective: To identify salient student responses to program fruit and vegetables (FV) and formulate recommendations. Design, Setting and Participants: FFVP is a federallyfunded free-FV distribution program. Students receive FV as snacks at program schools. Data were previously collected in classrooms from 4-6th graders in 32 randomly-selected Indiana FFVP-schools during academic year 2011-12. Volunteers completed anonymous post-program questionnaires with an open-ended item, ‘‘Do you have any comments to make about FFVP?’’ Outcome Measures and Analysis: Content analyses were applied to 800 responses that were randomly sampled from 2086 responses. Responses were analyzed to identify themes then summarized within theme. Results: Among responses, 40% pertained to overall program attributes, 33% to fruitand 19% to vegetables served in FFVP, with 8% unrelated random comments.Within fruit responses, students most frequently reported liking program fruitswith either no reason given (27.4%),flavor (tasty/juicy/ sweet:18.5%), or because the program provided types they liked (strawberries/apples; 12.3%).Only 1.1% reported disliking fruit, while 40.7% suggested serving fruit more frequently, and greater variety. Within vegetable responses, studentsmost commonly reported liking vegetables because, either they are healthy for the body (5.7%), or they like certain types of vegetables (carrots/lettuce; 22.8%), anddisliking vegetables for either no reason (17.9%) or flavor (nasty/ weird-tasting/gross; 19.9%). They suggested vegetable service include dipping sauce (14.8%) and more variety (18.9%). Conclusions and Implications: Student reports herein (that they like fruit) help explain why this intervention improves fruit intake. Program planners should consider adopting students’ salient suggestions to improve the taste of vegetables by service with dipping sauces and providing a wide variety of mild-flavored vegetables. Funding: None.