NUTRITIONAL NUDGING
“ I try to eat as healthy as I can with what I can get .” -Shelecia Morris , Sharing Life and NTFB client
During FY16 , NTFB participated in a research study conducted by Feeding America and Cornell University , focusing on the behavioral economics of nutrition education strategies within pantry settings .
The study questioned whether those served by local food banks and food pantries would be more likely to choose fruit , vegetables , whole grains , lean protein and low-fat dairy , if a nudge intervention was implemented .
Nudges are designed to influence individuals by providing subtle cues , such as product placement or more detailed nutrition labels emphasizing the benefits of clients selecting a particular item . Results indicate that nudges increased the likelihood a clients choosing a “ Food to Encourage ”( F2E ) item as well as the average number of F2E food items taken by clients .
Sharing Life participated in the study by making foods such as brown rice and whole-grain pasta more readily available for their clients . This was predicted to increase the rate of healthy foods clients were choosing .
Many food banks around the country have been trying this concept to get clients to chooose healtheir foods , and it ’ s working .
“ At the beginning of the project we only had about 14 percent of our clients willingly taking the brown rice and the brown pasta , they were not interested in it ,” Teresa Jackson , the Executive Director of Sharing Life , said in a KERA article , “ But after we created these nudges , it went from 14 , to 44 . And it ’ s changing their palate . As they ’ ve tried new things , that makes them more willing to try new things in the future .”
Teresa said she believes the goal of the program is to educate people on the foods they recieve instead of just giving them food they may not know how to prepare .
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