Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2024
Abstract
Objective: To obtain feedback from school nutrition stakeholders on an agent-based model simulating school lunch to inform model refinement and future applications. Design: Qualitative study using online discussion groups. Setting: School nutrition professional stakeholders across the US. Participants: Twenty-eight school nutrition stakeholders. Phenomenon of Interest: Perceptions and applicability of MealSim for school nutrition stakeholders to help reduce food waste. Analysis: Deductive approach followed by inductive analysis of discussion group transcripts. Results: Stakeholders appreciated the customizability of the cafeteria characteristics and suggested adding additional characteristics to best represent the school meal system, such as factors relating to school staff supervision of students during meals. The perceived utility of MealSim was high and included using it to train personnel and to advocate for policy and budgetary changes. However, they viewed MealSim as more representative of elementary than high schools. Stakeholders also provided suggestions for training school nutrition administrators on how to use MealSim and requested opportunities for technical assistance. Conclusions and Implications: Although agent-based models were new to the school nutrition stakeholders, MealSim was viewed as a useful tool. Application of these findings will allow the model to meet the intended audience's needs and better estimate the system.
Keywords
agent-based model, food waste reduction, school nutrition
Publication Title
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
Grant
2020-68015-30735
Rights
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Shelly Palmer, Iulia Ciubotariu, Roland Ofori, Mayra Saenz, Brenna Ellison, Melissa Pflugh Prescott, School Nutrition Stakeholders Find Utility in MealSim: An Agent-Based Model, Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Volume 56, Issue 6, 2024, Pages 361-369, ISSN 1499-4046, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2024.02.008..
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version