U.S. Higher Education Plant-Rich Menu Strategies 2010-2024

A scoping review of 363 reports covering 166 higher education institutions across 36 U.S. states and D.C. documents the application of eight marketing-mix choice architecture strategies to encourage plant-rich menu options. The study, authored by Nicole L. Furr, categorizes institutional strategies into domains like profile, priming, and pricing.

Use Cases

• Analyze the prevalence of eight strategy domains—place, profile, portion, pricing, promotion, default picks, priming/prompting, and proximity—across 166 institutions to identify sector-wide adoption patterns.
• Compare the reported usage frequency of profile (96.99%) versus pricing (5.42%) strategies to understand institutional priorities in behavioral nudges.
• Map the geographic distribution of 166 institutions across 36 states to identify regional clusters of sustainable dining interventions.
• Examine the temporal evidence from 2010-2024 within the 363 reports to track the evolution of specific strategies like default picks or promotion over time.

Strengths

• Documents 166 distinct higher education institutions, providing a broad sector sample.
• Categorizes evidence into eight specific marketing-mix strategy domains with reported adoption percentages.
• Sourced from a systematic review of 363 reports across databases, gray literature, and organizational websites from 2010-2024.
• Clear geographic scope covering 36 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Limitations

• The 631.2 KB PDF contains summarized review findings, not raw, analyzable tabular data on individual interventions.
• Findings are based on reported evidence, which may not capture all institutional activities, leading to potential under-reporting.
• The data is a static snapshot from a literature review, not a live database of ongoing campus dining operations.

Provenance

Source

Figshare, authored by Nicole L. Furr.

Collection Method

Systematic scoping review across five academic databases, Google Scholar, gray literature, news, media releases, and targeted organizational websites.

Time Range

2010 to 2024

Freshness

Last updated March 2026, based on a review covering literature up to 2024.

Geography

United States (36 states and the District of Columbia)