Influencing nutritional habits of college students using a food pantry

Abstract

Objective: Food insecurity in college students is associated with poor eating habits. The purpose of this project was to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables in college students using a campus food pantry. Participants: Twenty-nine college students completed the study. Methods: Participants viewed weekly food preparation videos demonstrating cost-effective recipes containing fruits and vegetables and a key take-away message. Participants were provided a recipe and food to cook at home based on the Cooking Matters Food Pantry Toolkit. A 24-h dietary recall was collected pre- and postintervention using the Automated Self-Administered 24-H Dietary Assessment. This descriptive comparative study used repeated measure ANOVA. Results: Females (n = 19) increased their fruit and vegetable consumption by 1.3 cups daily (p < .05) while males (n = 10) decreased fruit and vegetable consumption at the postintervention measurement. Conclusion: Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables in female college students using the food pantry was a modifiable behavior in this study.

Keywords:

• College students
• Cooking Matters Food Pantry Toolkit
• food insecurity
• food pantry
• fruits and vegetables

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors of this study have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm this research presented in this article was conducted in an ethical manner following guidelines, including adhering to legal guidelines of the United States, and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Western Illinois University and Illinois State University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Sigma Theta Tau International Xi Pi Chapter under Grant # 1580-02-581009472.