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Baseline inventory of the UBC food system : healthy food situation plan : audit of the top 10 vending machines

University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office

The aim of this project is to promote a sustainable and healthy UBC Vancouver campus food system through the completion of an audit of the top 10 selling vending machines. The audit enabled us to provide recommendations to stakeholders who will facilitate sales of healthy vending machine snacks on campus in adherence to the Healthier Choices in Vending Machines in BC Public Buildings Policy. The audits of the top 10 vending machines, the healthy snack food trial run at Gage Residence’s vending machine and a Natural Source Vending machine at Creekside Community Center, were compiled onto an Excel Spreadsheet. The Brand Name Food List website was used to categorize vending machine items into food groups and “choose most”, “choose sometimes”, “choose least”, and “not recommended,” according to BC’s vending guidelines. Interviews with stakeholders were done face-to-face and via email, and a literature search was conducted using Google Scholar, PubMed and MedLine. Findings show that on average, 59% of items in the top ten vending machines are “not recommended”, 26% are “choose least”, 15% are “choose sometimes”, and no items are “choose most”. Further, the vending Checkmark system is either not applied or incorrectly applied in all vending machines. UBC Food Services (UBCFS) is five years into their ten year contract with VendMaster and the existing terms of the contract do not require UBC to adhere to the Healthier Choices in Vending Machines in BC Public Buildings Policy until the contract in finished. There are many barriers to the implementation of healthy snacks in vending machines including: taste, cost, and packaging. Recommendations that can help UBCFS move toward adherence to the policy are: increasing the availability and decreasing the prices of “choose most” and “choose sometimes” items with the implementation of a colour-coding system. In addition, future LFS 450 students can conduct consumer surveys to determine snack preferences and coordinate taste tests of new products. During the next five years, we hope to see progress made toward adhering to the BC Vending Guidelines and the increased sales of healthy snacks from vending machines on the UBC Vancouver campus. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

University of British Columbia. LFS 450; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108601

Land and Food Systems, Faculty of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/