Marriott fuels student health with Nutrition Train

Nation's Restaurant News, March 1, 1993 by Peter O. Keegan

WASHINGTON -- Students who climb aboard Marriott's "Nutrition Train" at elementary schools across the country this month are learning the ABC's of good eating habits.

A set of 13 Nutrition Train cards, representing the major food groups, the food guide pyramid and recycling information, is being passed out to students at Marriott Management Services' elementary-school contracts nationwide.

"The Nutritional Train itself was designed to encompass Marriott's nutritional awareness program for grades K-6," said Chuck Litts, a regional marketing manager for Marriott School Services, who designed and oversees the program. "They can see what is being taught in the classroom demonstrated in the cafeteria."

Backed up by table tents, danglers, cookies, food pyramid mobiles and other materials, the four-week promotion is aimed at boosting sales while reinforcing proper eating habits during "National Nutrition Month."

Litts said the collecting of trading cards by kids gives food-service operations an opportunity to build new trials and attract more repeat business. "One of the cards is designed around breakfast, so that encourages breakfast participation," he pointed out. "And trading cards are what's in now; they are very hot."

Using trading cards as a tool to get children to learn and participate in nutrition is an idea Marriott has been working on for 18 months, said Litts, adding that the cards are stamped with first edition, so that the program can continue into "year two and year 2000."

The cards are centered around Marriott's signature food groupings, The Fresh Express Locomotive, the Diaryland Express refrigerator car, the Grain Belt hopper car, the Proteins box car, the Vegimals Fruit and Vegetable car and the Stay on the Right Track Caboose.

The backs of the cards feature nutrition facts about the food grouping as well as a box where students can measure the percentage of meats, fats, dairy foods, vegetables and grains that are in the meal.

Litts said Marriott has printed up 5.2 million cards, or 400,000 sets, to distribute in 252 school districts that use Marriott as its foodservice contractor. The cards are also being used in pediatric wards at hospitals where Marriott contracts the foodservice.

"We wouldn't have been able to do it without sponsors," said Litts, explaining that companies like Kellogg's, Veryfine, Aunt Jemima, Pork, Washington Apples and Ardmore Farms are paying up to 85 percent of the costs of the materials. "It doesn't cost the school districts any additional money."

He also noted that the cards provide schoolchildren with an interactive learning tool, enabling them to compare their meal with what's on the nutritional pyramid mobile. "We could have written in the information ourselves, but we felt it was important to utilize the food pyramid in a unique way," Litts explained. "This way you stimulate them with the question, and they actively seek the answer."

Litts said Marriott has worked with many of the companies before on monthly promotions for elementary and secondary schools. Marriott's contract division worked with Quaker Oats to develop a shortbread cookie designed to reinforce the program.

"The cookie is intended to give the operator a unique promotional food item that can be consumed, as opposed to a sticker," Litts said. "It's a wonderful idea, allowing operators to introduce an a la carte option."

Litts said a package of three cookies cost 25 cents, and 30 percent of calories come from fat, meeting government specifications.

Other point-of-purchase materials include a three-dimensional food pyramid, displaying the six major food groups and the number of servings that should be consumed each day.

In addition, a colorful lunch bag, for special sack lunch programs, also has been designed, featuring a word find, the four food groups and a cartoon of the Nutrition Train. "It makes it more intriguing and unique," Litts observed. "That's another lunch option through the bag."

Litts said that in addition to programs for elementary-school children there are those for secondary schools that include student health fairs, where booths are set up during lunch periods. Some schools even plan display cooking featuring wok and pasta recipes. But the focus of the program is on educating children at an early age.

"The focus is to concentrate on younger kids; once they learn the habits early on in life, they make choices on their own," Litts said. "Sometimes it's difficult to change patterns when you get into higher grade levels."