Eating a healthy breakfast is an essential prerequisite for excellent academic performance, strong health, and overall well-being. At present, the analysis of the number of students eating breakfast to the total enrolled at the U.S elementary schools reveals that this issue remains largely underestimated. To fill this gap, the nutrition policies at schools need careful reconsideration and modification. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a system of training for cafeterias staff to promote the Healthy Breakfast Program at elementary schools.
This project will focus on the implementation of training sessions, aimed at expanding the staff members’ knowledge about healthy nutrition habits. For instance, the program will improve their skills in breakfast preparation as to the optimal ratios of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to boost children’s health and prevent obesity. The results of the program will ensure the improvement of children’s quality of life and academic progress, which renders the research relevant.
The present research proposal relies on the findings from previous studies. For instance, the article by Rajbhandari-Thapa et al. (2017) evaluated the effectiveness of the Strong4Life healthy nutrition program in Georgia. To achieve their aim, the researchers focused on the awareness of the nutrition managers and staff as to the empirically tested strategies, and the environment at school cafeterias. The scholars assessed the effect of Strong4Life by conducting pre- and post-training surveys in February and July 2015, respectively.
Afterward, they administered a follow-up survey to evaluate changes at school cafeterias. The study embraced pre- and post-training surveys of 842 cafeteria managers and staff. The research also enrolled 325 managers to complete the follow-up survey. The study revealed a significantly increased awareness among school nutrition managers and staff as to the empirically tested strategies, as well as the enhanced environment at school cafeterias.
The study by Holeva-Eklund et al. (2020) assessed the effect of their nutrition program on the quality of school lunches in southern Colorado over the period from 2009 to 2015. Similarly, the program aimed to enhance nutrition at schools through cafeteria staff training. The study found that the nutrition program was highly effective in modifying the food preparation policies at school cafeterias.
Indeed, it contributed to enhancing the quality of nutrition by “decreasing the amount of processed foods served” (Holeva-Eklund et al., 2020, p. 244). Thus, these studies proved that training interventions exert a positive influence on the nutrition policies at schools, which justifies the feasibility of funding such programs.
This proposal addresses the following research questions:
- What nutritional modifications are necessary?
- What are the optimal ways to train staff?
- How effective are the training outcomes in terms of students’ attraction to eating breakfast at school?
The study’s variables are the number of staff members involved, the developed skills, the changed policies at elementary schools, the number of students eating breakfast at school cafeterias after the program implementation, as well as children’s and parents’ satisfaction level. The preliminary methodology of the proposal will rely on testing the training results via surveys among the participants using McNemar’s criterion.
To this end, the Likert-type scale A with combined strongly agree and agree responses will be useful. The research will also compare the cafeteria policies and environment before and after training using McNemar’s criterion, as well as the number of students eating breakfast at school cafeterias after the program implementation. Further, the research will monitor the level of children’s and parents’ satisfaction with the post-implementation survey. The data collection and management will rely on REDCap electronic data capture tools. The study will employ SPSS (version 22.0) for descriptive analysis and SAS (version 9.4) for participation data analysis.
The participants’ data will be anonymized and protected, thus addressing the ethical concerns of the research. The limitations of this research are in the fact that the project results will be evident after conducting the post-training survey, and the potential weaknesses of the program will be corrected afterward. The delimitation of this study is the focus on nutrition at elementary schools. Therefore, extrapolation of the research findings to other spheres of education is possible in the future.
References
Rajbhandari-Thapa, J., Bennett, A., Keong, F., Palmer, W., Hardy, T., & Welsh, J. (2017). Effect of the Strong4Life school nutrition program on cafeterias and on manager and staff member knowledge and practice, Georgia, 2015. Public Health Reports, 132(2), 48S–56.
Holeva-Eklund, W. M., Liebert, M. L. Smith, J. H., Mack, J., & Behrens, T. K. (2020). Effects of a nutrition program on school cafeteria lunch: An expanded commentary. International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 40(3), 243–245.