Food for Thought : P/PM 150's Implementation in Ontario

Abstract

Educational ministries have sought to address the increasing obesity rates across the world and promote optimal childhood health, growth, and intellectual development, by implementing school nutrition policies. In 2011, the Government of Ontario (Ministry of Education) implemented in an initiative: the School Food and Beverage Policy (P/PM 150). Although P/PM 150 is well intentioned, there remains a gap between what this policy states and the way in which it is being executed - resulting in unplanned and unexpected outcomes. To examine this divide and have another perspective on P/PM 150's execution, the following research question was addressed: How is Ontario's School Food and Beverage Policy (P/PM 150) being implemented in secondary schools by school boards and the Ministry of Education? This qualitative case study therefore explores the implementation of P/PM 150 from the perspective of school board supervisory officers in Ontario. Data collected from interviews as well as from P/PM 150 related content on the Ontario Ministry of Education, school board, and school websites/social media pages, were examined through a pragmatic lens. Thematic coding (using NVivo 10) was employed to analyze the interview data, whereas document and content analyses were used to examine the online content. A second coder analyzed a sample of websites and interview transcripts to ensure inter-rater reliability. Upon examining the interview transcripts, seven main themes emerged: 1) supervisory officer roles; 2) the importance of communication; 3) monitoring strategies; 4) P/PM 150 barriers and facilitators; 5) the policy's impact on pedagogy; 6) the P/PM 150 mindset; and 7) recommendations for promising practices. When analyzing the Ministry, school board, and individual school websites and social media pages, much of the content pertained to 1) the policy's subject matter (i.e., its layout, the policy's associated resources, etc.); 2) its administrative procedures; 3) the procedures' and P/PM 150's review processes; 4) the policy's implementation process (e.g., training, monitoring, etc.); 5) promoting P/PM 150; and 6) the policy's outcomes (e.g., nutrition education and partnerships). These findings may be of potential interest to the Government of Ontario (Ministry of Education), school boards, teachers, and policy designers in other sectors, such as health.