ArticleNutrients2026
The 'Schools Don't Waste' Program: A Theory-Informed Participatory Intervention to Reduce Plate Waste in Public School Canteens.
Article in Nutrients, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- School Lunches in Poland-Planned Wastage.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Great Balls Against Food Waste-An Innovative Nudging Intervention Method.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesFood waste in school canteens constitutes a significant environmental, organizational, and public health challenge. Despite numerous initiatives aimed at reducing plate waste, limited evidence exists on participatory interventions grounded in coherent theoretical frameworks and implemented in real school settings. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the Schools Don't Waste (SDW) program, a participatory, educational, and behavioral intervention based on the Needs-Based, Learner-Centered, Behaviorally Focused (NLB) model, in reducing visually assessed plate waste in primary school canteens.
methodsA quasi-experimental pre-post design without randomization was conducted in 37 public primary schools in Warsaw during the 2024/2025 school year. The intervention consisted of four stages: baseline plate waste assessment (T1), participatory roundtable meetings (T2), implementation of educational and organizational actions (T3), and post-intervention evaluation (T4). Plate waste was assessed using a standardized five-point visual scale. Differences between T1 and T4 were analyzed at the school level using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Implementation fidelity and its association with food waste reduction were explored using Spearman correlations.
resultsA total of 4988 meals were assessed at baseline and 4080 at follow-up. Significant reductions were observed in the proportion of completely uneaten meals (Δ = -6.10 pp;
conclusionsParticipatory, low-cost interventions integrating educational and organizational components may effectively reduce plate waste in school settings, while structural and contextual factors appear to moderate intervention effectiveness.
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