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COMMENTS & ANALYSIS
Measuring Effectiveness Is Key
by jim prevor, editor-in-chief, produce business
My desk functions as a clearance portal for research done around the world on produce consump-
tion. And I have to say that, for the most part, the world is filled with earnest people, who want to do good, who want to help others get healthier, want children to do better in school, want all good things for the world. I have read countless reports on countless initiatives, each one of which claimed not only to have increased produce consumption, but also claimed numerous secondary benefits such as children doing better in school.
It is absolutely inspiring to read of the people launching and sustaining these programs. It is also enormously frustrating. Why? What the industry actually needs is not anecdotes that claim to increase fruit and vegetable consumption or that claim doing so has had benefits; what the industry needs is research sufficiently rigorous that it will attract financial support from non-produce entities. In other words, we need resources that will come from foundations, insurance companies and the government if we are to roll things out across the country, maybe even around the world.
You don’t attract that kind of support because a teacher institutes a program in her school and claims it is a big success. You need control groups, you need testing done on multiple sites, you need evaluations of total consumption, not just at a school, and you need third-party evaluators who are impartial.
The Brighter Bites program is exceptional in many ways. A lot of programs focus solely on giving away free produce at school. The Brighter Bites initiative relies on integrating produce distribution and education within the home.
In fact, the produce giveaway is used as a kind of bait because parents can’t get this produce, about $35 a week’s worth, unless a parent walks into the school.
What really differentiates the program, though, is the commitment to research. Brighter Bites held its board meeting at The New York Produce Show and Conference and,
The Brighter Bites program is exceptional in many ways. A lot of programs focus solely
on giving away free produce at school. The Brighter Bites initiative relies on integrating produce distribution and education within the home. ... What really differentiates the program, though, is the commitment to research.
in conjunction with that, Professor Shreela Sharma and Brighter Bites founder and board chair, Lisa Helfman, presented at the confer- ence. We did a preview article on the Perish- ablePundit.com, a sister publication to Produce Business, and the key to the research, and the program, was expressed this way:
Q: Can you elaborate on why you thought it was important to have the research element?
LISA: There were two reasons: One, because I was doing this in my spare time, and I had no benefit to gain personally. I wasn’t going to be paid for this; I was doing this because I believed in the mission of creating health for people through fresh food, produce specifically, and if it wasn’t working, then why would we do this?
This is about how eating produce impacts societal health, and I wanted to know this model was effective and the strategy was working. Then, if it was working and we got to the point where we are today, I wanted to show our part- ners and donors with evidence we were making an impact and give them tangible results, because I don’t think we should move forward unless we can show value.
Shreela is a nationally recognized epide- miologist in childhood obesity at one of the largest research medical facilities in the country (University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston). I was introduced to her as one of the best and brightest in the field. Shreela told me at the time the Institute of Medicine had recently announced if we want to curb childhood obesity and work
on prevention, we not only need to teach kids literacy, we also need to combine with food access, so she was excited about the program.
No one was doing food delivery, and that’s what we realized six years into this program. We are one of the only non-profits that get the product into the home, and it goes the last mile, we like to say. That’s not only trying to change the children’s behavior but also the parents, who are the buyers of the product and the influencers.
We believe the kids cross-pollinate with the parents and cross influence their behavior, and that’s why it becomes sustainable longer term. Shreela can show this more through her data, but that’s the secret sauce of our program, attaching it to the whole family, and those holding the money to purchase the produce.
Of course, as Lao Tzu wrote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” There is much still to do. We have to ascertain the staying power of these interventions. Do college students who started the program in kindergarten eat differently than students who did not? We have to see if these dietary changes translate into better health. We have to study whether the parents who engage are different from those who won’t — and how are they different. Can they be reached effectively?
But, this program is unique and important. The industry would do well to engage and make it its own.
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