Are Grocery Store Tours Capturing the Right Audience? Characteristics of Students Who Volunteer to Receive a Grocery Store Tour

The goal of this research is to examine the demographics of students volunteering to receive a grocery store tour in order to assess if these students represent those most in need of the information. Dietetics students trained in giving grocery store tours through a Produce for Better Health grant provided store tours to college student volunteers, “tourists”. Tourists provided demographic and health behavior data which was analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, t-tests, and chi-square. Twenty-three student trainees gave tours to 49 student tourists. Most tourists were female (77.8%), of healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) (64.9%), and reported being healthy eaters (47.3%). Results indicated that tourists who were not healthy eaters, did not cook daily, and were not likely to increase produce intake after the tour had higher BMI’s. Few tourists were male, obese, or reported having less healthy eating habits. Future research should examine who is participating in store tours in order to optimize their impact on healthy eating and shopping habits by assuring recruitment of individuals most in need of the experience