FEATURED PUBLICATION​

Toward a Healthy and
Environmentally Sustainable Campus Food Environment: a Scoping Review of
Postsecondary Food Interventions

Kirsten M. Lee, Goretty M. Dias, Karla Boluk,
Steffanie Scott, Yi-Shin Chang,
Tabitha E. Williams, Sharon I. Kirkpatrick

Read the paper

Interventions are urgently needed to transform the food system and shift population eating patterns toward those consistent with human health and environmental sustainability. Postsecondary campuses offer a naturalistic setting to trial interventions to improve the health of students and provide insight into interventions that could be scaled up in other settings. However, the current state of the evidence on interventions to support healthy and environmentally sustainable eating within postsecondary settings is not well understood. A scoping review of food- and nutrition-related interventions implemented and evaluated on postsecondary campuses was conducted to determine the extent to which they integrate considerations related to human health and/or environmental sustainability, as well as to synthesize the nature and effectiveness of interventions and to identify knowledge gaps in the literature. MEDLINE (via PubMed), CINAHL, Scopus, and ERIC were searched to identify articles describing naturalistic campus food interventions published in English from January 2015 to December 2019. Data were extracted from 38 peer-reviewed articles, representing 37 unique interventions, and synthesized according to policy domains within the World Cancer Research Foundation's NOURISHING framework. Most interventions were focused on supporting human health, whereas considerations related to environmental sustainability were minimal. Interventions to support human health primarily sought to increase nutrition knowledge or to make complementary shifts in food environments, such as through nutrition labeling at point of purchase. Interventions to support environmental sustainability often focused on reducing food waste and few emphasized consumption patterns with lower environmental impacts. The implementation of integrated approaches considering the complexity and interconnectivity of human and planetary health is needed. Such approaches must go beyond the individual to alter the structural determinants that shape our food system and eating patterns.

 SEE MORE PUBLICATIONS ​→

Tweets by kirsten_m_lee

Kirsten Lee
BSc PhD(c)

---

Research interests: Food policy, food systems, food environments, environmental sustainability and health, health informatics, systems thinking and methods

Education:
PhD Candidate, Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Waterloo (2017- )

MSc Candidate, Public Health and Health Systems, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo (2016-2017)

BSc, Health Studies with Health Informatics Option, Public Health and Health Systems, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo (2011-2016) (BSc research project summary)

Select publications:
Peer-reviewed:

• Google Scholar
  

Reports and other publications:

• ​Scott S, Cai B, Lee KM, Maynard M, Scott C. Recipes for a Sustainable and Healthy Campus Food System (workshop discussion paper). 2016.
• Lee K, Naeem A, Toffelmire N, Kocsis E, Cee B, et al. Resource Guide: How to plan a forum. 2016.

Select presentations:

• Lee KM, Hammond D, Price M, Hobin E, Wallace M, Olstad DL, Minaker LM, Kirkpatrick SI. Numeric and traffic light calorie labels on cafeteria menus: Noticing, use, and perceptions among young adults. American Society for Nutrition, Seattle, Washington. 2020. Seattle, Washington.
  
• Lee KM, Hammond D, Hobin E, Olstad DL, Minaker LM, Kirkpatrick SI. Examining the impact of numeric versus traffic light calorie labelling at the point-of-purchase on young adults’ food and beverage purchases. Dietitians of Canada Annual Conference, 2019.
• Lee KM, Marcinow M, Minaker LM, Kirkpatrick SI. Healthfulness of campus eateries at two time points. Canadian Nutrition Society Annual Conference. 2019.
• Lee KM, Dias G, Scott S, Minaker L, Markvart T, Boluk K, Kirkpatrick SI. A scoping review of food-related interventions on post-secondary campuses. Leveraging Systems Approaches to Improve Human and Planetary Health, 2018.
• Lee KM, Dias G, Scott S, Minaker L, Markvart T, Boluk K, Kirkpatrick SI. A scoping review of food-related interventions on post-secondary campuses. 2017. Canadian Association for Food Studies, 2017.

Recognitions:

• 2018-2021: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
• 2016: Graduate Experience Award, University of Waterloo​
  

Select professional activities and networks:

• Member, Canadian Institutes of Health Research Health Services and Policy Research Trainee Committee on Environmental Sustainability (2020-Present)
  
• Member, University of Waterloo Food Systems Collaborative (2020-Present)
• Co-Chair, Obesity Canada Students and New Professionals University of Waterloo Chapter (2018-Present)
• Student Member, Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (2017-Present)

Summary of BSc Research Project:
Assessing the consumer nutrition environment on university campuses—A case study of eateries at the University of Waterloo

• The campus food environment has the potential to influence eating behaviours among students.
• The purpose of this study was to examine the consumer food environment at the University of Waterloo, with a focus on availability and accessibility of healthy food choices and facilitators and barriers to healthy eating.
• Environmental cues, such as marketing materials, within eateries often contradicted the availability of healthy choices.
• Healthy options were priced similarly or higher than less healthy options, were typically limited to pre-packaged choices, and often located in low-traffic areas.
• Strategies are needed to create university food environments that support healthy eating.​