Charlottesville schools are considering instituting a color-coded nutrition system in the cafeterias, using red, yellow, and green to indicate the relative healthfulness of different foods.
5 thoughts on “Schools Consider Color-Coded Foods”
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Why not just offer healthy food?
Easier, no?
From the DP article: “In May 2004, the UVa Medical Center also started color-coding its vending machine snacks and drinks. Results from the first year of this program showed that sales of red items decreased 5 percent; the yellow rose 30 percent; and the green items increased 15 percent.”
Is the “accelo-yellow” effect seen with traffic lights a universal phenomenon? This anecdote certainly supports it.
It’s probably more that people can talk themselves down to the bag of “baked” Lays, but have a much more difficult time settling for the “Zero fat crackers.”
I should note, as well, that at CHS the snack line is pretty much considered a second business for the school system in terms of giving them a financial boost. Cookies and chips are gonna sell a lot more than apples and Cliff bars.
What Michael said. Hey, on the subject of schools, the people at Bacon’s Rebellion (my summer internship) are talking about year round schooling as a way to stretch education dollars further. Has this been discussed around here?