Eat the Rainbow! An Evaluation of a Short-term Fruit and Vegetable Nutrition Education Intervention for Elementary School Children

Objective: To test differences on mean fruit and vegetable (FV) eaten, liking, preference, and self-efficacy scores among 3 modes of nutrition education intervention after a 3-week intervention.

Design: Convenience sample, pre- and post-test, quasi-experimental design.

Setting: Three elementary schools in a rural Eastern Tennessee County.

Participants: Participants were 160 3^rd-5^th graders.

Interventions: Three study schools: experiential (nutrition education, taste tests, and learning activity), conventional (nutrition education and learning activity), and control (learning activity).

Main Outcome Measures: Changes in pre- to post-intervention mean FV eaten, liking, preference, and self-efficacy scores.

Analysis: Mixed model ANOVA to compare the mean pre- and post-scores. Significance was set at the 0.05 level.

Results: Significant increases for preference by intervention group (p=0.015). Although there were no differences by intervention group, significant increases and decreases from pre- to post-intervention were noted for overall FV eaten (p=0.016), liking (p=0.001), and preference (p=.003).

Conclusions and Implications: A 3-week school-based nutrition intervention influenced some factors associated with FV consumption. More research is needed to evaluate sustainability and appropriate, practical intervention duration.