School Foods

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Yates County (CCE of YATES) functions as part of a larger state and national land-grant system that extends research-based information to local residents, families and the agricultural community. CCE is an integrated network including campus-based faculty and extension associates, regionally deployed specialists and local county-based educators. As a result, CCE of YATES has access to current research findings from across the country and the world which it puts into practice by providing high value educational programs and university-backed resources.

Cooperative Extension and Local Schools Partner with Cornell University to Improve Child Nutrition by Finding Ways to Encourage Them to Eat More Fruit 

Cornell Cooperative Extension in Steuben, Yates and Seneca Counties have partnered with the Cornell  Food and Brand Lab, Food and Nutrition Education in Communities and the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement in a research study that has kids in area schools selecting, and eating, a lot more fruit at lunchtime.  In fact, overall, students in the study selected 23% more fruit while at the same time fruit waste decreased 24%.  That's a lot more fruit going into the stomachs of middle schoolers! 

This past spring, a group of middle schools across the three counties participated in a multi-year project funded by the USDA called "Smarter Lunchrooms: Does Changing the Environment Really Give More Nutritional Bang for the Buck?"  The goal is to discover and evaluate simple and inexpensive ways to "nudge" students towards taking and eating more of the healthful foods that are now widely available in school cafeterias.  The techniques used are based on "Behavioral Economics," which is the science of designing choices or changing the environment in such a way that kids (and adults too!) make better choices without noticing they are being influenced.

This spring the focus was on fruits and vegetables and included simple tactics like putting up signs and placing targeted items such as fresh fruit in a pretty bowl and placing it in a prominent location.  Cooperative Extension staff also worked with students in the schools to help them come up with creative names like "Bob Sled Bananas, Gonzo Grapes or Courageous Corn".  Each school in the study either highlighted fruits, vegetables or acted as a control by making no changes to their lunchrooms.  Then researchers from the Cornell team and Cooperative Extension observed what the kids were eating at regular intervals over the course of the study.  Cooperative Extension played a key role, conducting trainings for the school cafeteria staffs on how to set things up and providing support to the schools during the entire study period.  The Cornell team said that the study wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of the Cooperative Extension associations in each county.

The Cornell researchers reported that working in Yates County was very rewarding and that the cooperation they received from the school staffs and administrations was some of the best that they had seen.  
Did it work?  The evaluation of the data collected is still going on, but the early indications are that while vegetable intake didn't change, efforts to improve the consumption of fruit were a huge success.   In fact, here in Yates County, the kids at the fruit promotion school took 35% more fruit!

Yates County schools have played an important role in helping to make school cafeterias a little smarter in New York.  Their work contributes to future work in other parts of the state.

For more information on nutrition education or other resources available in Yates County, contact Cornell Cooperative Extension of Yates County by calling (315) 536-5123.

Last updated September 15, 2023