This issue of the UC ANR Nutrition Policy Institute's Research to Action spotlights healthy vending guidelines for college campuses, news, and our latest publications.

Research to Action - The Nutrition Policy Institute news brief

July 2020 | Vol. 4, No. 3

Convenient and Healthy! Implementing Healthy Vending Guidelines for College Campuses

What is the issue?

Vending machines serve as a convenient source of food nearly everywhere we go. In the US, food and beverage vending is a $25 billion industry with 33,000 vending machines on college and university campuses. Across the University of California (UC) system, there are approximately 530 food and 780 beverage vending machines, providing quick food and drink options. Vending offerings are often low in nutritional value and high in calories, fat, salt, and sugar, and rarely offer healthy options.

In 2014, President Napolitano’s UC Global Food Initiative and the UC Healthy Vending Working Group was created. Representatives from five UC campuses were charged with developing system-wide healthy vending standards that would apply to all vending machines on all UC-owned or leased properties. The Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) played an integral role in the development of the UC Healthy Vending Guidelines and implementation toolkit.

The Working Group spent more than two years building consensus and engaging stakeholders at all levels, including nutritionists, vending contract managers, student groups, representatives from campus procurement, legal, and sustainability departments, and major vending service providers, like Canteen, Pepsi, and Coca Cola. The result is a thoroughly vetted, comprehensive, and feasible set of minimum standards for all UC locations to use to improve vending machine food and beverage offerings.

Seven UC campuses are utilizing the vending guidelines and efforts to institutionalize them into official UC policy are underway. Campuses are promoting healthy vending options, integrating healthy vending into other campus health initiatives, and meet with vendors to ensure that healthy options are stocked.

Preliminary findings from an NPI evaluation indicate that campuses actively working to increase healthy vending options saw greater sales of healthy snacks and drinks. Additionally, both UCLA and UCSF have reported no negative impact on sales after increasing healthy offerings in their campus vending machines.

Why is this important?

The college years are a critical transition period into adulthood. Higher education settings can support optimal learning through healthy environments. While a healthy diet over a lifetime can reduce the risk of chronic disease, it is also a predictor of higher grade point averages in university students. In another study, NPI has shown that vending machines in staff lounges are associated with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by school staff.

The UC Healthy Vending Guidelines do not eliminate unhealthy options, but set minimum standards for what is considered healthy and ensure that each machine includes healthy offerings. Enacting these guidelines as a policy would increase access to healthy foods and beverages, giving members of campus communities healthy options when purchasing from a vending machine.

What can I do?

Here are things you can do to implement a healthy vending policy:

Think small, but mighty. A policy requires a lot of decision-making that can be hard to accomplish in large groups. Form a small team of your organization’s stakeholders.
Don’t recreate the wheel. Developing nutrition standards may sound daunting, but luckily there are many examples out there. Gather the ones most applicable for your organization (we looked for vending policies in higher education and workplace settings).
Get as much early feedback as you can. Ask, and continue asking, “Who else should see this?” By soliciting feedback, we received excellent suggestions, as well as a better understanding of where barriers lie and how to prepare for them. This led to a section in the implementation toolkit called “Anticipating Barriers.”
It’s okay to re-group and re-direct. When we realized that policy adoption was going to take longer than anticipated, we started disseminating a voluntary policy. This kept the momentum going and led to an opportunity to collect and analyze some data.
Reach across silos. Your policy may find a home you didn’t expect! A surprising finding from this work was that UC doesn’t have a centralized department for health and wellness initiatives, which are instead carried out at the campus level. Working on the healthy vending policy has resulted in an exciting dialogue with new partners, including procurement and sustainability departments.

References are available upon request. For more information, please contact Janice Kao at jankao@ucanr.edu.

News

Recent NPI Publications and Reports

Child Care Sites Participating in the Federal Child and Adult Care Food Program Provide More Nutritious Foods and Beverages
Gurzo K, Lee DL, Ritchie K, Yoshida S, Homel Vitale E, Hecht K, Ritchie LD. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Volume 52, Issue 7, pages 607-704, 1 July 2020. Available online 5 April 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2020.02.009

Research Brief: Healthy Beverages in Child Care - Adherence to California's Healthy Beverages in Child Care Act
Nutrition Policy Institute. California Food Policy Advocates. Sarah Samuels Center for Public Health Research & Evaluation. UCSF School of Nursing. California Childcare Health Program. University of California Cooperative Extension. UC Merced. 24 June 2020.

Participants' Experiences of the 2018-2019 Government Shutdown and Subsequent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefit Disruption Can Inform Future Policy
Gosliner W, Chen W, Johnson C, Esparza EM, Price N, Hecht K, Ritchie L. Nutrients. 23 June 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061867

Fact Sheet: Calling all Districts! USDA Summer Meals Can Keep Kids Healthy (National version)
UC ANR Nutrition Policy Institute. Stanford Medicine Department of Pediatrics. School Nutrition Association. 20 June 2020. Download a modifiable template (Word document).

Fact Sheet: Calling all Districts! USDA Summer Meals Can Keep Kids Healthy (California version)
UC ANR Nutrition Policy Institute. Stanford Medicine Department of Pediatrics. Updated 20 June 2020. Download a modifiable template (Word document).

Drinking water access in California schools: Room for improvement following implementation of school water policies
Altman EA, Lee KL, Hecht CA, Hampton KA, Moreno G, Patel AI. Preventive Medicine Reports, eCollection September 2020. Available online 8 June 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101143

Retailer Perspectives on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes in the California Bay Area
Ponce J, Yuan H, Schillinger D, Mahmood H, Lee M, Falbe J, Daniels R, Madsen KA. Preventive Medicine Reports, available online 28 May 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101129

The association between sugar-sweetened beverage availability in school vending machines and school staff sugar-sweetened beverage consumption
Rauzon S, Randel-Schreiber H, Kuo E, Schwartz P, Reed AL, Thompson HR. Preventive Medicine Reports, Volume 19. September 2020. Available online 27 May 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101128

Higher Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Retail Prices After Excise Taxes in Oakland and San Francisco
Falbe J, Lee MM, Kaplan S, Rojas NA, Ortega Hinojosa AM, Madsen KA. American Journal of Public Health, available online 21 May 2020. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305602

Association of Multisetting Community Programs and Policies With Child Body Mass Index: The Healthy Communities Study
Collie-Akers VL, Fawcett SB, Schultz JA, Fleming KK, Swinburne Romine RE, Ritchie LD, Frongillo EA, Arteaga SS. Preventing Chronic Disease, Volume 17, 7 May 2020. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd17.190196

Book: Bite Back: People Taking on Corporate Food and Winning
"Fast Food Embodied: Industrial Diets" chapter by Madsen K, Gosliner W. Edited by Saru Jarayaman and Kathryn De Master, University of California Press, May 2020.

California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Healthy Stores Refrigeration Grant Program Umbrella Organization Interview Report
Tsai M, Esparza E, Gosliner W. UC ANR Nutrition Policy Institute. 7 May 2020.

Nutrition Provided to Infants in Licensed Childcare Centers and Homes: A Descriptive Study
Lee DL, Gurzo K, Nhan L, Homel Vitale E, Yoshida S, Ritchie LD. Maternal and Child Health Journal, available online 29 April 2020. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-02929-z

Fact Sheet: ¿Consumir frutas y verduras frescas sigue siendo seguro durante el COVID-19? Existen varios programas de ayuda para comprar frutas y verduras.
UC San Diego Center for Community Health. Ideas 42. UC ANR Nutrition Policy Institute. 29 April 2020.

Fact Sheet: It is safe to eat fresh fruits and vegetables during COVID-19? There's help for buying fresh and local fruits and vegetables.
UC San Diego Center for Community Health. Ideas 42. UC ANR Nutrition Policy Institute. 29 April 2020.

For a complete list of NPI publications, please visit npi.ucanr.edu/publications.

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The Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) conducts research for healthy food, people and places. We envision a world in which healthy food, beverages and opportunities for physical activity are accessible, affordable, equitable and sustainable for everyone. Our mission is to conduct and translate policy-relevant research to transform environments for healthy children, families and communities.

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