Smarter Lunchrooms Make Healthier Kids


​Since 2009, over 29,000 U.S. schools have joined the Smarter Lunchroom movement.  This USDA-recognized program is a no-cost/low cost way to help kids make healthy choices and waste less food.   It's worked so well, it's now being adapted by other countries.

Here's How to Make Your Lunchroom Smarter

Here's how we used behavioral science to help school lunchrooms become smarter.  
Smarter Lunchrooms
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Smarter Lunchrooms (Free to Share)
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Tell Your School

Here's how to help your child's school become a Smarter Lunchroom.
Send this Letter to School
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Here's How You're Doing

How's your school doing compared to other schools?  This will also show the easiest ways it can improve over night, over the weekend, or over the summer.
Smarter lunchroom Scorecard (2018)
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Planilla Comedores Inteligentes
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A 90-Minute School Makeover -- MTV Style 

Here's a fun 3-minute video for MTV's Channel One
​that show's how easy this is.
USDA Announces Support for Smarter Lunchrooms



"The Smarter Lunchrooms movement applies practical, research-based principles and strategies that have proven effective at creating an environment that encourages kids to make healthy choices. The movement, which was developed by Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs (BEN Center) with funding from the USDA and others, uses environmental cues to increase student selection of healthy meal options and decrease plate waste. These include simple strategies such as structuring choices in the lunch line so that healthy foods are easiest for students to access, having cafeteria staff dialog with students in such a way that nudges them toward healthy items, and creatively naming foods or meals to make them more appealing to children. For example, researchers found that changing the placement of where fruit is displayed in the lunch line led to a doubling of sales. Similarly, creative naming and display of vegetables increased selection by 40 to 70 percent." www.fns.usda.gov/pressrelease/2014/003714
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Want to hear about updates and new discoveries?
Learn more by visiting SmarterLunchrooms.org or by signing up for this mailing list.