Fruit, veggie patrols headed for schools

Grant designed to see what foods students toss in trash

Watch out, BPS students — researchers will be digging through cafeteria trash to see if you’re eating your vegetables!

Boston Public Schools is looking to spend up to $40,000 in grant money on a “plate waste study” designed to see if students are actually eating the food they take in the cafeteria, according to a request for proposals released this week.

The study will focus particularly on fruits and vege tables and whether officials can push kids to eat more healthy foods through different menus and other changes.

Last year, BPS signed a contract with Revolution Foods to provide fresh meals to city schools. A new program called My Way Cafe will help fund new kitchens in 30 schools, allowing them to prepare their own food. But nutrition standards for healthy food are based on students actually eating it, and officials are worried about “excessive plate waste” of uneaten food.

“While some plate waste is unavoidable, excessive waste may be a sign of inefficient operations and a delivery system that is unresponsive to the needs and wants of the student body,” the proposal reads. “School food waste can have important nutritional and cost implications for policymakers, students, and their families.”

“This data will be crucial in providing information about the food needs of students, and will assist in ensuring fewer students are discarding uneaten food,” BPS spokesman Dan O’Brien said in a statement.

The study calls for researchers to study what students eat and what they throw away at 14 schools across the city this fall. Changes will be made based on observations and surveys and then the study will look at how much food is thrown away in spring 2019 for comparison. Researchers will weigh food that goes out and then is thrown away, determining “percentages consumed and wasted” for entrees, fruit, vegetables and milk.

Researchers will survey students about their favor ite parts of each meal and whether they had preferred menu items, as well as other factors that affect their eating.

AtLarge Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George, a former teacher, said she was pleased the school was studying eating habits but that time should be taken into account as well.

“It’s a huge concern for parents that kids don’t have enough time to eat at lunchtime,” Essaibi-George said. “Kids are making decisions on what they can eat quickly.”