The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a grant of $149,992 to study the on-campus food choices of college students.The grant was awarded to Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey for the “Prevention of Late Adolescent Obesity in the College Environment: an Optimal Default Paradigm.” The project started at the beginning of this year and is running through the end of 2014.
A focus of the study is the weight gain of college freshman. According to the USDA non-technical summary of the grant, “The first year of college is a time of transition when adolescents are first learning to manage their own energy intake and expenditure without parental supervision. Many students obtain their meals on campus and are confronted with a wide array of food choices without any limitation on options or portion sizes.”
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