IMOVE

Funded by the Charles H. Hood Foundation, Dr. Quatromoni brought  research resources into two urban school districts in Massachusetts to deliver and evaluate the IMOVE program, an environmental intervention in middle-school cafeterias to make healthier school lunch options available to students. IMOVE was created by Costa Fruit & Produce in Charlestown, MA, designed to infuse school lunch menus with more weekly servings of fruits and vegetables while lowering the amounts of fat, sugar and sodium in school meals. More than 1,200 students were reached daily over the course of a full academic year

The Specific Aim of the IMOVE study was to conduct a quasi-experiment to evaluate the IMOVE program in four middle-schools serving low-income communities of children of mixed racial/ethnic backgrounds.  It was hypothesized that compared to the control school, the IMOVE intervention would:

• increase participation in the school lunch program
• improve the availability of healthy foods in participating school
• be sustainable with high rates of participation
• be rated positively by participants
• promote desired changes in individual food purchase and food consumption behaviors