Appendix U: Scripts of Video Training
Welcome to the 2025 United States Department of Agriculture National Household Food Study!
Thank you for opening and reading our letter with the $5 token of appreciation inside. This voluntary study is so important that we are offering you the opportunity to earn additional money via gift cards for giving your time.
The information gathered from your household will help government agencies, universities, researchers, and policymakers understand how people get the food they need and what factors influence household food choices. We randomly selected households representing different neighborhoods all over the country to make sure that as many people as possible are represented. The data you provide will be kept strictly confidential and combined with the data from the other households to gain an accurate picture of food acquisition throughout the country. All names, addresses, and contact information will be removed from the combined data.
This video will tell you about the different parts of the study, who should complete each part, and the gift card amounts that can be earned for completing each part. The parts of the study are the Household Survey, Profile & Income Survey, Food Log, and Closing Survey.
The Household Survey should be completed by the person in your household who is at least 17 years old and either does most of the food shopping or most of the meal planning and preparation. You will earn $40 for this part of the study which will gather the information about members of your household, their characteristics (such as age, race, and gender), and their contact information. There are questions on health, work, income, education, and where your household gets their food. The Household Survey can be completed on a smart phone, tablet, or computer. We group certain types of questions together and after each grouping, you may not be able to use the Back button to revisit a previously answered question. Please make sure the answers you enter are as accurate as they can be before you press the Next button.
If you live with someone 14 years or older and tell us during the Household Survey that they will answer their own questions on health, work, and income, after you submit the Household Survey, they will be sent an email asking them to create an account and fill out a Profile & Income Survey. Each household member will earn $5 for completing their Profile & Income Survey. If you choose to answer the health, work, and income questions for those you live with that are 14 years or older OR if you live with someone younger than 14, you will answer their questions as part of the Household Survey. You will earn $5 for each Profile & Income Survey that you complete for someone else. As the person completing the Household Survey, you will not receive a separate Profile & Income Survey since you already answered those questions for yourself as part of the Household Survey. The Profile & Income Survey can be completed on a smart phone, tablet, or computer.
The day after you submit the Household Survey, you will be sent an email asking you to create an account where you can access your daily Food Log. The Food Log is where you will report the foods and drinks you get on your assigned consecutive days beginning the day after you submit the Household Survey. If you do not get any foods or drinks on an assigned day, we want to know that too. If you live with someone 14 years or older and you tell us during the Household Survey that they will not report their own foods and drinks OR if you live with someone younger than 14, then you will report their foods and drinks in the same Food Log where you report your foods and drinks. Each household member completing their Food Log will earn at least $5 per day. In addition to your own Food Log, if you complete daily Food Log entries for other household members, you will receive at least an additional $5 per day per person. More information about how many days you need to complete the log and the gift card amounts you will receive can be found in the email inviting you to complete the Food Log. It will be quickest and easiest for you to complete the Food Log on a smartphone.
The final part of the study is the Closing Survey which gathers information about your experience completing all parts of the study. The same person who completes the Household Survey should complete the Closing Survey and will earn $15 for completing it. The Closing Survey can be completed on a smart phone, tablet, or computer.
There are additional videos to help you do the Food Log. The videos are available both throughout the survey and on the participant website at www.census.gov/help/foodstudy. Also on the participant website, you can find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, including the ways we protect your privacy.
Live operators from the U.S. Census Bureau are available to help answer any questions, 7 days a week from 9:00am-9:00pm local time, at X-XXX-XXX-XXXX. You can also email [email protected] for assistance. The Census Bureau is responsible for conducting the survey for the United States Department of Agriculture. Qualtrics is the online reporting tool used to collect survey responses on your smart phone, tablet, or computer.
Thank you for watching this video and participating in the National Household Food Study, more information can be found at census.gov/help/foodstudy.
Video#2 (for PRs and 14+ Household Members Reporting for Themselves)
Food Log Overview
In this video, you will learn how to access the Food Log and what items to include in your Food Log. It will be easiest for you to complete these activities on your smartphone using a link that we’ll send you. The link will open a new tab or browser on your phone.
To create your account, follow these steps.
Click the link in your invitation email and select “Create Account.”
Enter the email address found in the body of the invitation email as your username and then you will receive a verification email.
Click the link in your verification email to create a password and then login.
Access your National Household Food Study dashboard, where you will complete your daily Food Log entries.
Your dashboard will show one tile for each of the daily Food Log days. While all tiles will be marked as “Available,” please only report your foods and drinks in the appropriate day’s tile. Along with the day designation, each tile will display the gift card amount for completing each tile. If you are completing the Food Log for others in the household, you will do so within your daily Food Log.
Each day you should report any foods or drinks you get in the Food Log as soon as possible, including both items you purchase and those you get for free. When we say any foods or drinks, we mean ANY foods or drinks, even for other household members or people outside your household. Always remember to include food you pay for, food you get for free, or food you get that was paid for by someone else. Depending on the type of food you get, you’ll get different options in the Food Log to enter individual food items. We’ll talk more about entering where and what you purchase or get for free in the next video.
When entering items into the Food Log, include items you will use to prepare foods and drinks at home, such as the groceries you get from the supermarket, convenience store, wholesale club, discount or big box store, dollar store, pharmacy, specialty store or market. Also report food and drink item purchases from online retailers on the day you order them. If you order for delivery and the items will arrive after the study ends, we still want the items reported in the Food Log on the purchase day, even if you order a grocery delivery and it doesn’t have the physical items to scan the barcode. Add any foods or drinks you get that were not prepared at home, such as takeout or delivery from a restaurant, a free meal received, a school breakfast or lunch, or coffee from the breakroom at work. You should also add any ingredients or prepared food or drink items that someone else, like a visitor, buys for the household, and indicate that these items were received for free. A visitor bringing a cake to celebrate an event or bringing ingredients to make a cake together to celebrate an event should be included in the Food Log.
Do not report any non-food or non-drink items that you get, like toilet paper, medications, or pet food, even if you got the items while you got food and drink items. Do not include foods or drinks that are already on hand at home since you got these ingredients before the start of this study. You should only add any new items that you buy or get for free on each study day. The goal of the study is to find out what kinds of foods and drinks you get and how you get them, only during your study days. Therefore, we are not asking for what you eat every day at every meal, as it is not a dietary health study of individuals. Instead, the focus is on what foods and drinks you get for free and/or foods and drinks that are purchased for the household.
Let’s walk through a study day together and decide what should and should not be included in the Food Log. Say you start your day eating a bowl of cereal with milk. If you already reported in the Food Log that you got the cereal and milk on a previous study day and you’re eating them today, the cereal and milk should NOT be included in today’s Food Log. Now let’s say you get a cup of coffee in the breakroom at work. This should be reported in the Food Log, noting if it was free or you had to pay for it, since this is a new item on this study day. Even if you only drink half of the coffee, we still want to know that you got it and where you got it. If you add cream or sugar to your coffee, we want to know that too. For lunch, let’s say you bring leftovers from last night’s dinner. These leftovers should not be reported in the Food Log, as you did not purchase or get them for free today. On your way home, let’s say you stop at the grocery store to purchase a few items to use for dinner. These new food and drink items you buy at the grocery store should all be reported, even if you don’t use them for tonight’s dinner. In this study day example, you should report two different events – first the coffee from work, then the ingredients from the grocery store.
Please save any receipts you get from food and drink purchases. These could be paper receipts that were printed out after you made a purchase or digital receipts that were emailed or texted to you after you made a purchase. When you report the foods and drinks you get in the Food Log, we will ask you to either take a photo of your receipt or upload an existing photo of your receipt. Video#6 will show you how to add your paper or digital receipts to the Food Log.
You must return to the Food Log if you happen to get more foods or drinks (or any foods or drinks not previously listed) before the end of the day. Before the gift card amount becomes available for either entering that day’s foods and drinks into the Food Log or noting that you did not get any foods or drinks that day, you will be asked to confirm that all food and drinks have been reported.
Thank you for watching this video and participating in the National Household Food Study, more information can be found at census.gov/help/foodstudy.
In this video, you will learn how to report items in the Food Log that you purchased or got for free to prepare food at home and how to report already prepared items you purchased or got for free.
Record the food and drinks as you go about your day.
Items you get from a grocery store shopping trip, a meal you share with your family at a restaurant, or free food from a food pantry are examples of the types of things that should be reported in the Food Log. You will need to report all foods and drinks you purchase or get for free each day for all study days. The number of days you need to report can be found in your invitation email and on the Food Log dashboard.
Depending on the type of foods you get and where you get them, you will get different options to enter individual food items into the Food Log. If you get foods to prepare at home from a place like a grocery store or food pantry, there are three different ways to report the items in the Food Log. The first is by using your smart phone’s camera to scan a package’s barcode. The second is by entering the price lookup code, or PLU, typically found on a fruit or vegetable sticker. The third way, which we suggest using only if the first two options will not work, is by typing in the item name and description and selecting the correct item if it pops up; otherwise, continue to use your own words to describe the item.
Video#5 will walk you through how to use these three options. For ease of reporting your items, we recommend unpacking your groceries and scanning barcodes, entering the PLU, or describing the items as you put things away rather than waiting until the end of the day when you would need to search for things that you’ve already put away. If you are not reporting for the others in your household, please remind them to do their Food Log every day.
If you get already prepared food at a place like a restaurant, there are two different ways to add them to the Food Log. The first is through the combo meal option. When several different food and/or drink items are sold together for one price, they are considered a combo meal. Examples of a combo meal include a happy meal at McDonalds, items from a buffet, spaghetti and meatballs that comes with a salad and garlic bread, Kung Pao chicken that comes with a side of rice, or a school meal that comes with chicken tenders, corn, and milk. The second way to report already prepared food is by individual item. You should report items this way if you did not get a combo meal, but instead got individual items that were each sold for their own price. For these individual items, you will type in the item name. Video #5 will show you how to best use the type ahead feature, as we would like you to be as specific as possible when entering item names. If you get prepared food like a combo meal and prepared food like individual items at the same time, we will ask you about the combo meals first and the individual items second.
If you got multiples of the same combo meal or individual items, you will be able to report those together. The combo meals need to be exactly the same if reporting more than one together. For example, if you got two Hamburger Kids Meals, but one with fries and one with apple slices, you need to report those separately as they are not exactly the same.
Sometimes you get both foods or drinks to prepare at home and already prepared foods or drinks at the same time. An example of this is buying ingredients at a grocery store to bake a cake and also buying an already prepared sub sandwich at the grocery store’s deli. Another example is visiting a coffee shop and buying coffee beans to use at home (which is considered the grocery item) and buying a cup of coffee (which is considered the already prepared item). In these situations, we’ll ask you about the food to prepare at home first and the already prepared food second.
Thank you for watching this video and participating in the National Household Food Study, more information can be found at census.gov/help/foodstudy.
In this video, you will learn how to search for the location where you got food or drinks while in the Household Survey and or Food Log. It’s important for us to know exactly where you got your food and drinks. For example, in addition to knowing you got a drink at Starbucks, we need to know which Starbucks location you got the drink from. To enter a location, you will enter the store or restaurant name and at least one of the address details, such as street name, city, state, or ZIP code. Then, you will see a list of store or restaurant locations, including a map view, for you to select the location where you got food or drinks.
Using the location search in the Household Survey will make location reporting in the Food Log easier, as the information provided on frequently shopped stores in the Household Survey creates pre-filled options in the Food Log. You can select one of these pre-filled locations in the Food Log when reporting where you got your food or drinks. If you got food or drinks at a different location, then you will use the search box to add the location.
Depending on your location and search results, a “Display more” box might be present. If necessary, select this box to see additional search results. If all results are displayed, you will see the message “All results displayed.” If you still do not see the correct location and have confirmed that you have spelled the location correctly and that there are no other errors in your entry, select the “None of these” button. Next, move to the next screen where you will record the location name and address in separate fields. If you see the correct location, select it, then move to the next screen where you will record your food or drink items. If you still do not see the correct location and have confirmed that you have spelled the location correctly and that there are no other errors in your entry, select the “None of these” button, then move to the next screen where you will record the location name and address in separate fields. How you type in the location information will influence the search results you see. For example, if you only enter the store or restaurant name and the city, dozens of results may be available. However, if you enter the store or restaurant name, street name, city, and ZIP code, you will get fewer and more accurate results.
Do not enter delivery services such as Grubhub, Uber Eats, or InstaCart. They are only picking up and delivering food and drinks to your household from a store or restaurant. The location of the food and drinks is what we are asking for, not who delivers them. Remember to only report an online order if you made it on one of the assigned daily Food Log days. Do not include any items ordered before your assigned days even if the order arrives on an assigned day. Never enter your home address in the search box since you are only reporting items that were not already in the home.
Thank you for watching this video and participating in the National Household Food Study, more information can be found at census.gov/help/foodstudy.
In this video, you will learn about the options available to enter your food and drinks into the Food Log. For items you get to prepare at home from a place like a grocery store or food pantry, the first option is scanning the barcode on the package label. The second option is entering the Price Lookup Code, or PLU, for fresh fruits, vegetables, and loose items like nuts. The third and final option is using the text search when the first two options are not available for the food or drink item. For already prepared items you get from a place like a restaurant, the one option for reporting the food and drinks is the text search.
First, let’s talk about scanning the barcode. It will be easiest for you to scan a barcode using your smartphone. Most pre-packaged food and drinks in cans, bottles, cartons, jugs, jars, boxes, bags, and plastic wrap will have a barcode that is scanned at checkout in a store. Each barcode is a one-of-a-kind, unique code composed of numbers, along with a specific pattern of stripes, that represents a specific product. If your food and drink items have a barcode, always try scanning it first to save time instead of manually entering the item information.
In the Food Log, using your smartphone camera or computer camera, you will scan the barcode when prompted. First, you will likely see a prompt to select "Request Camera Permissions” to allow the Food Log to access your camera, then select "Allow.” When permissions are enabled, select “Start Scanning.” If your smartphone has multiple camera lenses, you may need to select the lens you want to use for the barcode scan. When scanning, position your camera so that the entire barcode shows within the white rectangle's frame area. If scanning with your computer's camera, you may need to wait up to 10 seconds for the scan to be recorded.
When the barcode scan finds a match, item names and corresponding pictures will be displayed, with the closest match displayed first. If you see an exact match, select that item, then you will move on to the next question and will not be asked to provide the item’s weight or size since this information is captured through the barcode scan.
If the camera is unable to read the barcode, you will receive an error message asking you to try again. If the scan is taking too long and not picking up the barcode, hit “Stop Scanning” to return to the “Start Scanning” screen. After a second unsuccessful scan, you should switch to the text search which allows you to enter the item description in your own words. You should also switch to using the text search if none of the displayed items are correct or if no match is found.
We recommend scanning packaged items as you put them away at home after a shopping trip rather than at the end of the day when you would need to pull out items that you already put away.
Next, let's talk about Price Lookup Codes, or PLUs. For fresh fruits and vegetables or bulk bin items, look for the PLU which is usually a 4‑ or 5-digit number found on a sticker or rubber band on the item or on the outside of an open bag. Most PLUs are 4 digits for conventional items and 5 digits for organic items. You can see an example of a 4-digit PLU sticker on this non-organic lemon and a 5-digit PLU sticker on this organic banana.
In the PLU search box, enter the PLU, then select the exact match in the drop-down list. The drop-down list will display both the PLU number and the corresponding item description. If you enter a PLU number that does not match any of the options in the drop-down list or if you do not select an option from the drop-down list, an error message will be displayed on the next screen. At this point, you can either go back to the previous question to type the correct PLU code and select the match from the drop-down list or you can enter the name of the item on the next screen.
The last option to enter items you get to prepare at home and the only option to enter already prepared items is to enter an item description in your own words in the text search box. For items you get to prepare at home, this is a fallback option that you can use to enter food and drinks that do not have a barcode or PLU, or where we did not find a match to the barcode or PLU. When you use the text search, please be very specific and use brands, flavors, and anything else that would help identify the exact food or drink you got. As you type the item’s information into the search box, the drop-down list will update as you add specific details. For example, rather than entering “vanilla ice cream” you should be more specific and enter “Breyer’s vanilla bean ice cream.” Multiple options will be displayed back to you for you to select the closest match. You may select "Breyers Fresh Cream and Real Vanilla Bean Ice Cream”, “Breyers Low Fat Ice Cream, Vanilla Bean”, or another appropriate match from the drop-down list.
If your item is a generic or store brand item and is not listed in the drop-down list, please revise your text search to give as many details as you can such as “Frozen breaded chicken breast” instead of just “Chicken.” It is important to accurately describe each item that you get.
Thank you for watching this video and participating in the National Household Food Study, more information can be found at census.gov/help/foodstudy.
In this video, you will learn how to add your paper receipts and electronic receipts to the Food Log. Please save all the receipts you get from food and drink purchases during your assigned Food Log days. When you report the food and drinks you get, we will ask you to either take a photo of your paper receipt or upload an existing photo of your paper or electronic receipts.
When asked “Do you have a receipt from the food and/or drink purchase,” if you select “Yes, I have a paper or digital/electronic receipt,” you will be asked to upload a picture (or more than one picture if necessary) of the whole receipt. You will see a box below with the instruction “Select a file or drag here”. From a smartphone or tablet, you will have the option to either access your photo library to upload an existing photo or use your camera to take a photo. From your computer, you only have the option to upload an existing file.
It will be easiest for you to upload a receipt using your smartphone or tablet. If you have a paper receipt, you can either take a photo of the receipt after your shopping trip then upload the receipt into the Food Log, or you can take a photo of the receipt while in the Food Log. If you have an electronic receipt, please take a screenshot of the receipt then upload it to the Food Log.
If you are uploading a receipt using a computer, you will take a picture of the paper receipt or take a picture or screenshot of an electronic receipt and save it on your computer. After the receipt image is saved, you can upload it to the Food Log.
Regardless of the device you are using to upload the receipt image, if the receipt is too long to fit in one photo, you will be able to upload up to two receipt images in the Food Log. After adding the first image and selecting Next, you will be asked if you were able to upload the complete receipt or if you need to add a second photo to capture the part that was not included in the first image.
Always check to make sure that the text on the receipt is easy to read once the picture is taken or uploaded.
Thank you for watching this video and participating in the National Household Food Study, more information can be found at census.gov/help/foodstudy.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Melissa Kresin (CENSUS/ADDP FED) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-08-12 |