A journal article written by Quick, et al. is the published results of a survey conducted on and around the campus of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The surveyors looked at four dining halls, four fast-casual restaurants, eleven fast food restaurants, and seventeen sit-down restaurants. They used the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey - Restaurants (NEMS-R) for the 32 off-campus restaurants. The NEMS-R was also adapted to accommodate the four on-campus dining halls. According to their observations, "barriers to healthy eating (i.e.,menu notations discouraging special requests, encouraging larger/unlimited servings) were noted only in sit-down and fast-food restaurants and dining halls" (Quick, et. al. A69). What's so interesting about that observation is that the dining halls on-campus, which are supposed to promote healthy eating, actually weren't. Overall, the dining halls did a better job of promoting healthy eating, but "the overall food environment needs considerable improvement" (Quick, et. al. A69). The article did not list any possible improvements for the food environment; it listed mainly statistics and collected data.
This particular survey provides information towards answering the questions of: "how does the college experience affect dietary intake?" and "is it [the college experience] enhancing or diminishing [with regards to dietary intake]?" Just from my own experience, there are fast food and pizza restaurants all along South College Road: Little Caesar's, Domino's, Hardee's, Bojangle's, Wendy's, Cookout, etc. Other than the Japanese Steakhouse and McAllister's across from campus, the majority of food within the immediate vicinity of campus is mainly fast food.
I believe the survey results reinforce our argument, for the most part, that food on-campus needs to be improved; in comparison to the dining halls of Rutgers University promoting "barriers to healthy eating," Wagoner Dining Hall has done something similar in the past; one night, they were promoting a pizza buffet. Pizza obviously isn't the healthiest thing in the world.
I also believe that, in a way, that particular article detracts from our argument. Wagoner Dining Hall has posted labels with information regarding calories, allergen warnings, etc. above different food items; however, these labels don't get changed sometimes, and they should be with every meal rotation. In Dub's Cafe, The Landing, and Hawk's Nest, these labels do not exist at all.
Also, in another article written by Abbott, et. al., a food safety media campaign was created for five different universities across the United States: one Northeastern, one mid-Atlantic, one Northwestern, and two mid-Western. In the article, a survey with regards to food safety was conducted; 59% of the respondents were first- and second-year students. Of that 59%, .82% had never taken a nutrition, food science, or microbiology course, 65% never worked as a waiter/waitress, 83% never worked as a cook/chef/etc., and 92% didn't have any food safety certifications (Abbott, et. al. 1121). Given that information, it would be interesting to see how UNCW ranked by itself in comparison to the five universities in the article.
Conclusion
The information found in the two articles and from my personal experience could provide my group with more questions in need of answers or answer questions already raised. Either way, the information collected here will aid in the completion of our final report.
References:
Abbott, J.M., Policastro, P., Bruhn, C., Schaffner, D.W., Byrd, Bredbenner, C. (2012). Development and evaluation of a university campus-based food safety media campaign for young adults. Journal of Food Protection, 75(6). 1117-1124.
Quick, V., Weiner, A., Shu, E., Kosz, M., Byrd-Bredbenner, C. (2011). Healthfulness of the food environment on/near a university campus. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 111(9), A69.
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