References

Brieffel, R.R.,et. al. (2009) Consumption of Low Nutrient, Energy Dense Foods and Beverages at School, Home, and Other Locations among School Lunch Participants and Non-Participants. //Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol. 109.// Retrieved from [] The objective of this study was to describe patterns of consumption of empty calorie, low-nutrient, energy dense foods by school lunch participants and non-participants. It found that an average of 527 empty calories are consumed by a school student a day. Eating at home provided the highest amount of energy from low nutrient foods. This study fits with our topic because we are going to examine how much food is wasted by school lunch programs. Another way to interpret the word “wasted” could be an examination on how many calories are wasted by consuming low nutrient foods. Center for disease control. (June 3, 2010) Childhood Obesity – Healthy youth. //Centers for disease control and prevention//. Retrieved January 16, 2011. [].
 * References ** A PDF version of references for proper formatting[[file:References.pdf]]

The CDC website is filled with information to showcase the problem of childhood obesity. The website has many good resources to diagnose and treat obesity like the ten evidence-based strategies for schools to implement in addressing childhood obesity. There are other resources to calculate the body mass index of individuals and information on why this measurement is important in the fight against childhood obesity. There are links to other resources to help parents and young adults to be more mindful of their caloric intake. The CDC site is a powerful in the education of our students and parents about the concerns of obesity and its effects on our society. The CDC website is important to our project for the resources that it provides for teachers and students. The information under the data and statistics heading, especially the “Food and Beverages sold outside the School Meal Programs” pdf, give very important data to support the concepts of waste and energy in food and how they relate to obesity. The additional school health policies and programs are very good resources to help school level management educate students and teachers. The concept of healthy eating correlates strongly with decreased waste in a school. By teaching students and teachers to eat simple unprocessed foods like locally grown fruits and vegetables we decrease the waste created from mass packaging. Making people aware of the effects of their food choices is the desired result from this website and that is also our desire with this project. Condon, E. et.al. (2009). School Meals: Types of foods offered to and Consumed by Children at Lunch and Breakfast//. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol. 109.// Retrieved from [] This study examines the quality of foods offered in school how much is consumed at breakfast and lunch. It also examines the differences in kids who did and did not participate in school meal programs. The results found that students who participated in school meal programs drank more milk, starch vegetables were offered more than leafy, green vegetables, and students who participated in meal programs were less likely to consume desserts, snacks, and sugary beverages. For our project, we can see if there is a correlation between what’s offered and how much food is wasted. For example, we can compare the amount of food waste on days where chicken nuggets and french fries are served, versus days when meatloaf and spinach are served.

Environmental Protection Agency. (December 16, 2010). Food Waste-Organic Materials. //US Environmental Protection Agency//. Retrieved January 16, 2011. http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/organics/food/index.htm

The Environmental Protection Agency website showcases the problem that plate waste presents from an environmental standpoint. The idea that wasted food is not just a feeding issue but is instead an environmental problem. Basic information about food waste as a disposal problem and what is being done about it can be found here. There is a link to information for large scale food waste generators like super markets and schools that discusses ways to manage and eliminate some of the waste stream at the source. The EPA has put together tools and resources for food scraps management and also showcases success stories where organizations have been successful in recovering and eliminating food was This site provides our study with ideas that will complete the project we have presented. While teaching the students about the problems associated with food waste is important, it is also important for students to see that there are solutions to the problems of food waste. This site also showcases regional and state food waste programs. We will use the food waste recovery hierarchy to guide the students in their assessment of how we should decrease our food waste stream. The FAQ section of the site provides a good basic understanding of food waste concerns. Students will spend some time looking at these statements to develop a deeper understanding of the problem we are working on. The EPA site is a great tool for the students to wrap their mind around this complex problem. Gordon A., et al. (2009) The Third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study. //Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol. 109. Retreived from [] // This was a nationwide study of school breakfast and lunch programs. Data was collected through surveys, phone calls, and in-person. Students were interviewed, kept a 24 hour food record, and were measured for height and weight. Comparisons were made between students who participated in school breakfast and lunch and those who did not. For our project, we could use similar data collection methods. We could see if there is a correlation between obesity in those who typically waste lunch and those who do not. Keenan-Greene, A, (2011). Childhood //Obesity Battled One School Lunch at a Time//. //Examiner.com//. Retreived Jan. 16, 2011 from []

This article praises the recently signed School Lunch bill. The author expresses that it is time to take drastic steps to educate the youth on health eating habits in order to fight unnecessary weight gain, and live a more comfortable life as adults. Many experts agree that healthy eating habits begin at home. This article reminds me that proper habits are learned at home. For our project, we need to incorporate a parental involvement component that gives the parents the tools necessary to reinforce good habits. Kopelman, P.G. Caterson, I. D. Dietz, W. H. //Clinical obesity in adults and children//. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.

This is a very large scientific study about clinical obesity in adults and children. The wording is very scientific with results and conclusions that are valid and interesting for use in an elementary setting. The findings claim that obesity in children is primarily caused by excessive caloric intake and insufficient exercise. Students need to be taught how to estimate calories present in food. They must be exposed to foods and provided with discussion about high calorie low nutrient foods versus low calorie nutrient rich foods. This research is relevant to our application in that it can be used to discuss the importance of correct caloric intake with students and adults. The information presented here shows that childhood obesity leads to adult obesity and the cycle can only be stopped with education. By showing our students the amount of calories found in food and also demonstrating the amount of calories that students need to consume we can reduce waste associated with lunches that are too large calorically. Lee, B. L. (2010). // The effect of sugar and processed food on student on-task behavior in the national school lunch program: A review of the literature ////.// Online Submission. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

This research study discusses the correlation between school lunches and on task behavior in school aged children. The focus of the research is to see the correlation of the need for nutritional lunches for those participating in the school lunch program due to the high number of children that rely on this meal. The author makes the assumption that there is a direct correlation between off task behavior and school lunch. It is further examined that the data of over 5,000 students that were looked at as being at risk for obesity and on task behavior and found that the assumption originally made was true. Children that reported eating a higher diet quality and more fruits and vegetables were less likely to be off task and thus perform better on a standardized literacy test. The referenced study should be included in our project to relate to students the importance of eating a full lunch in order to be at their best when returning to class. A direct correlation between academic achievement and nutrition can help solidify the importance of the study to students in all grade levels. Showing students the connection between their food intake (and waste), behavior, and overall performance can provide an internal motivator that can in turn help boost the students overall academic performance. Students can be exposed to the global aspect of this dilemma and be prompted to provide resolutions for all students. This correlation can have an empowering property to our project and provide a real life connection to learning. Li, J., & Hooker, N. H. (2010). Childhood obesity and schools: Evidence from the national survey of children's health. //Journal of School Health//, 80(2), 96-103. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2009.00471.x

This study from the Journal of School Health looks at the impact that social, environment, and household variables have on the likelihood children will suffer from obesity as a child and later as an adult. The study found that children attending public schools had a higher BMI rate than those that attended private schools especially when accepted for the reduced/free lunch program. The study further established the correlation between students (regardless of school) had a lower BMI when actively involved in exercise or sports. This study demonstrated the need for schools to play an active role in preventing childhood obesity through nutritional and educational programs. This study would be a great source of information for our project to illustrate the need for balanced meals at school. Our project can provide a direct connection to nutrition and the importance of following the dietary guidelines set forth by the USDA. Students can reflect on the food that they are wasting and determine if it is food that can help or hinder their nutritional well-being. By helping students to see the value of food from a nutritional viewpoint as well as environmental and economical, students can begin to make positive health choices. These choices will enable students to make choices that can better their education and school experiences. Lindstrom, N. (March 28, 2010).Wasted food: Schools work to trim waste of taxpayer-subsidized food. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Retrieved January 9, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1995463731). []

Lindstrom discusses the growing numbers related to school lunch waste. The author includes elementary and secondary education in their research of the rising amount of wasted food. The article continues with examples of various school districts commenting on ways they have tried to reduce these numbers and cost for tax payers as well as the results of the change they made. This article is relevant to our project because of the direct connection to school lunch waste. The article would prove to be a sound resource for students to review and see the direct consequences to throwing food away at lunch. I think it is also relevant because it includes elementary and secondary schools so students can see the impact this problem has at all levels. By providing a wider array of student populations, the impact of the study can have more weigh as a resource for students to go back to throughout the project. Morrison, N. (2009). The spectre at the feast. //Times Educational Supplement//, (4868), 10-18. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

Morrison does a great job of breaking apart the waste in a school and showing just how much of the waste is food related. The research that was completed involves students taking and sorting all of the trash from the day before into piles so that they can see whats “in the bin”. The article talks about changes that were made in the lunch program to decrease the amount of food waste. Morrison tackles an interesting concept when he begins to look at reducing food waste versus reducing food sent to the landfill. Morrison’s findings are important to our research because he talks about the amount of waste that is present in schools. The schools researched in the article are elementary schools in the United Kingdom. The food waste principles are being used as teaching points for the students involved at the school, much like our suggested project is going to be designed. Morrison discusses options like rewarding students for clean plates, and packaging fruits and vegetables in smaller chunks so that students are not overwhelmed. These ideas represent easy positive steps that schools and individuals can take to reduce food waste. Nozue, M. Yoshita, K. Jun, K. Ishihara, Y. Taketa, Y. Naruse, A. Ishida, H. (2010). Amounts served and consumed of school lunch differed by gender in Japanese elementary schools. //Nutrition Research and Practice//, 4(5), 400-404. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

Japanese researchers completed a study comparing the serving size and consumed food amounts for boys and girls in the lunch program. The research indicates a social difference in the willingness of young girls to ask for more food when needed. While boys in Japan will ask for more, the girls tend to just go without. The conclusion of the research is that more care needs to be given to serving sizes in Japanese lunches especially for girls. This study is relevant for our research because it discusses the ideas of serving food versus consumption of food in an elementary school setting. The study goes on to explain how Japanese schools measure plate weight to determine menu items and serving sizes in cooperation with nutritional guidelines. The information given in this report speaks directly to the type of changes that could increase student health and awareness of serving sizes food waste. The conclusions and results listed in this study could provide a blueprint for more effective food management in our school lunch programs. Obama, M. (2010). A Food Bill We Need. //The Washington Post//, Aug. 2 This is an article written in August, 2010 by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, urging congress to pass the School Lunch Bill as soon as possible. Mrs. Obama also discusses her “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity. In our project, we can examine the correlation between food waste and movement. Do the kids purposely not eat because they are so anxious to get to recess? We can also figure out other ways to allow students additional movement throughout the school day. Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. (pp.157-184). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

The book referenced above contains information to help the educator in making the transition from brick and mortar classroom to online learning community. The book includes chapters on the definition of community, how to encourage participation, as well as best practices for creating the online classroom. The book provides research and graphics to help fuse the information together. This book is an excellent reference to include in our project to help guide teachers in creating the collaboration aspect of the project. Those that are technology novices and experts can utilize this book to gain information about the best ways to engage learners or to refresh their ideas of how to incorporate online communities into their current classroom. Although the book seems tailored for those in post secondary teaching, the general information can be applied to all levels of education.

Samuels, Christina (2010). Obama Signs Long Awaited School Lunch Bill [Electronic version]. //Education Week//, Jan. 16.

This article gives an overview of the recently passed Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that will reform school breakfast and lunch programs. The bill will provide more money for school districts and higher standards for school meal programs. This is the first non-inflation increase for school meals in over 30 years, adding six cents per meal to food budgets. For our project we can look into the meal budgets of each school involved in the project to see if there are any disparities. We can then see if there is more or less food wasted in the schools with the higher budgets, Schanzenbach, D. (2009). Do School Lunches Contribute to Childhood Obesity?. //Journal of Human Resources//, 44(3), 684-709. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//. Schanzenbach looked at the correlation between children that ate school lunches on a "regular" basis and the chances that they would be categorized as obese in his research study. The author looked at a group of students at the beginning of kindergarten and followed them through eighth grade collecting data at intervals. Students were classified as "usually" buying school lunch or those that brought their lunch. Questions about the participation in reduced/free lunch were asked of to the children's parents to determine if that had a correlation to the likelihood of increased childhood obesity. The author concluded that the student’s participation in the school lunch program did have a correlation to an increased likelihood of childhood obesity. The author further states that there may be other contributing factors however the data collected shows that a change in nutritional guidelines may be needed to help the well-being of those children that participate in school lunch programs. This study is important to include in our project as it ties in the need to look at what children are throwing away and what they are eating. Stressing the importance of a well balanced meal is a great extension of the project with lessons that can discuss the food pyramid and positive health choices as students look at the data collected on the types of food wasted in the school lunchrooms. By increasing the curriculum areas that can be covered in this project, educators have a way to connect multiple discipline areas into one engaging learning project. Staff, Mayo Clinic. (October 9, 2010). Childhood obesity - mayoclinic.com. //Mayo Clinic//. Retrieved January 16, 2011. []

The Mayo Clinics page on childhood obesity provides information related to childhood obesity. The site opens with a clinical definition of childhood obesity and then progresses to symptoms, causes, risk factors, complications, tests, diagnosis, treatments, drugs, lifestyle, home remedies, coping, support, and prevention. The site offers a lot of different information on obesity and prevention. This site relates to our study by giving us the information to inform and reform the behavior of the students in our classrooms. By showcasing the information on diagnosis, treatments, lifestyle, and home remedies we can make our students responsible for their own diet and lifestyle decisions. By creating effective lifestyle decision makers in our school we will showing our students that their individual behavior can create a positive change in their environment starting with their school. Teen Ink. (2010). Just Tossing It. Electronically Retrieved January 8, 2011, from []

This general article is an editorial written from the student’s perspective. It begins by describing the problem of wasted food in the school cafeteria giving data to support their point. The author then goes on to explain the consequences of the wasted food and a few practical ideas for changing the problem. I think this is a good article to include with our project because it is written from the student’s point of view. Seeing the problem through the eyes of a peer will bring a new sense of empowerment to students and get them excited to see the change that they can make. It is a valuable tool to include as many students often consider their voice to be unimportant. This article can be used as a springboard to the topic or as a reference along the way and demonstrate to students not only the positive and negative aspects of the topic but how important good communication skills can be. This resource can provide valuable insight into the value of writing and making your voice heard. Tessmer, K.A. (2006). //Conquering Childhood Obesity for Dummies//. Chapter 1 is called “Looking for Answers”, and is broken down into subtopics, Nailing Down the big Causes of Childhood Obesity, Changing your Family Life, and Working through the Rough Patches. The chapter simply states that there are two steps to cutting down on childhood obesity; Cutting back on high fat foods, and increasing daily physical activity levels. This relates to our project because I am interested to see how many people in our group who have children who do not get recess. There are so man overweight kids right now who do not get to go outside and play. It would be nice to compare the schools to see if there is a correlation between being overweight and physical activity. United States Department of Agriculture. (2009). McGovern-Dole international food for education and child nutrition program. Fact Sheet. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

The United States Department of Agriculture developed a program to help poverty stricken countries battle the problem of child hunger and low academic performance. This program is focusing on children that suffer from malnutrition. This need for food lends to the decline in academic performance. By providing programs, training, and support the program hopes to reduce the number of children that have poor academic performance and suffer from hunger. The program also hopes to have such countries that apply for and receive the assistance the ability to learn and prosper in their own communities and eventually be able to provide for themselves. I feel that this article is important to include with our project as it helps to demonstrate a world-wide problem, child hunger. This can be used to highlight the value of food and increase awareness in children about the food that they waste each day. Students can then be prompted to devise plans to help local food shelters or communities that resemble those mentioned in the article as an extension of the original project. This article is another example of ways to make students more aware of the global aspects of local problems. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Wallace, B. D. (2009). The New School Lunch. //District Administration//, 45(6), 36-40. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

The journal “District Administration” researched the ideas and principles behind childhood obesity. The research is completed to provide suggested changes that need to occur in public school food service departments to combat the childhood obesity. The article discusses new ways to present food to students that allows them to eat healthier items without identifying them as healthy. The ideas presented are to work around the concerns of the students and provide them with healthy food that they still want to eat. This study is relevant for our research by discussing how to make students eat from a healthy menu and still be satisfied with the taste of the final product. Healthy food is closely related to good environmental food choices. Healthy food includes fresh local fruits and vegetables that are not over packaged and over processed. The research and ideas presented in this article can be used in our lunchrooms to reduce food waste and increase student health.