School Lunch Research Articles

Education and school meals: a way to feed knowledge and cur hunger

This article has as objective to comprehend questions related school lunch school in teaching environment for student basic education. The public policy, the guaranty of laws to proporcion the dues feed security are fundamental for individuals to assimilate the knowledge that education proporcion, above contributing to appreciation of lunch regional development through local. Analyzing the influence of school lunch security lunch of public school students, we served for the PNAE, allows us to gain knowledge of entire program, that is, education, school, lunch, regional development and agriculture. This study demonstrates the relevance of school meals so that students can not only have access to lanch in its physical form in sufficient quantities and nutritional values, but also social and economic forms.

School Meal Nutrition Standards Reduce Disparities Across Income and Race/Ethnicity

Children's diets in the U.S. typically fail to meet dietary recommendations, contributing to associated adverse health outcomes. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010 required the U.S. government to update nutrition standards for school meals to align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs). This study estimates the evolving impact of substituting school-prepared food for home-prepared food on overall daily diet quality and by subcomponents of diet quality. Subgroup analyses are performed by race/ethnicity and income. Two, nonconsecutive days of dietary recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-March 2020) are used to calculate schoolchildren's Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2020 scores. The study includes children with complete two-day dietary intakes who attend kindergarten through twelfth grade in a school offering lunch. An individual-level fixed effects regression is employed to examine the relationship of school food consumption on HEI-2020 scores before and after HHFKA-mandated changes in nutrition standards. Analyses were conducted on September 23, 2023. Prior to changes in standards (2005-2008), school food did not impact diet quality within the overall group of children. In 2009-2012, positive associations between school food and diet quality emerged for low-income students and for non-Hispanic Black students. By 2013-2020, improvements were seen across all groups. The association between school food and diet quality was most attributable to more favorable consumption of dairy, fruit, whole grains, refined grains, added sugars and saturated fats. HHFKA-based nutrition standards were associated with beneficial dietary changes and reduced dietary disparities for children across diverse backgrounds.

Healthy, Inclusive and Sustainable Catering in Secondary Schools-An Analysis of a Transformation Process with Multiple Tensions.

Interest in catering for public sector schools is increasing due to its potential role in addressing the prevailing problems of malnutrition, food insecurity and non-sustainable food habits. Based on the case of secondary schools in Berlin, this study aims to explore this potential by focusing on the process of transformation towards healthy, inclusive and sustainable school catering. It employs a multi-perspective analysis based on the two concepts of food environment and social cohesion. Results are based on quantitative and qualitative data collected via an online survey of pupils from 25 secondary schools in Berlin as well as field notes from six stakeholder events. The survey findings were analyzed by descriptive means and provide explanations for the fact that most of the pupils (66.7%) never eat lunch at school. Based on the qualitative analysis of the stakeholder events, key tensions between actors from the federal state, municipal, school and private levels could be identified. Major areas of conflict arise due to (1) a lack of public funding and catering standards, (2) incompatible demands and preferences, (3) a lack of resources and opportunities for complementary education and participation, and (4) peer and parental influence. Transforming school food environments requires integrative strategies with interventions introduced by multiple actors operating on different levels.

Universal Free School Meals Policy and Childhood Obesity.

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a universal free school meals policy, increases school meal participation by allowing schools in low-income areas to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students; however, its impact on obesity remains uncertain. The objective of this study is to estimate the association of CEP with child obesity. School obesity prevalence was calculated using BMI measurements collected annually between 2013 and 2019 from students in California public schools in grades 5, 7, and 9. To estimate the association of CEP with obesity, we used a difference-in-differences approach for staggered policy adoption with an outcome regression model conditional on covariates, weighted by student population size. The analysis included 3531 CEP-eligible schools using school-level obesity prevalence calculated from 3 546 803 BMI measurements. At baseline, on average, 72% of students identified as Hispanic, 11% identified as white, 7% identified as Black, and 80% were eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Baseline obesity prevalence was 25%. Schools that participated in CEP were associated with a 0.60-percentage-point net decrease in obesity prevalence after policy adoption (95% confidence interval: -1.07 to -0.14 percentage points, P = .01) compared with eligible, nonparticipating schools, corresponding with a 2.4% relative reduction, given baseline prevalence. Meals served increased during this period in CEP-participating schools only. In a balanced sample of California schools, CEP participation was associated with a modest net decrease in obesity prevalence compared with eligible, nonparticipating schools. These findings add to the growing literature revealing potential benefits of universal free school meals for children's well-being.

The exceptions to child exceptionalism: Racialised migrant ‘deservingness’ and the UK's free school meal debates

Free School Meals (FSM) have been the site of renewed contestation and extensive campaigning in the last half-decade. Until recently, children in families with ‘no recourse to public funds’ because of their immigration status were excluded from accessing FSMs, despite being some of the most destitute in Britain. Through an analysis of campaign materials and interviews with advocates, we consider this dynamic policy terrain in light of the UK's ‘hostile environment’ and consider lessons for campaigners. By exploring imaginaries of childhood, poverty, and nation shaping FSM policies, we offer a warning that campaigns can end up justifying exclusions at the same time as aiming for more expansive support. How campaigns represent their causes has implications, which, in this case, is often through the exceptionalism and hyper-deservingness of childhood. We argue these representations reduce discussion to technical questions about who is ‘deserving’, thereby risking shoring up an exclusionary and hostile state.

On some methodical aspects of estimation of intergroup morphological variability in growth studies

The significance of growth activity peak in screening studies of children and adolescents as biomarker of chronobiological status of the population is the focus of present research. The broad spectrum of samples (N = 43), including different ethno-territorial groups of Russia and former USSR, examined throughout a wide historical period of second half of 20th — beginning of 21st century, was included in the analysis. The material source was data from literature and authors’ own databases. The following indicators of growth activity peak were calculated for each group: age (in years) of the maximal velocity of growth changes of the average level of height through the adolescence, estimated by empiric rows of annual changes of mean height with further smoothing by the least squares method — separately for boys and girls; its absolute value (cm) and chronological age (years). Intragroup sexual differences of these characteristics were considered as well. The subsequent statistical analysis (Statistica 10 package was used) revealed, that intergroup distribution of age at peak height velocity was not Gaussian and gravitated towards bimodality for both sexes. Herewith the least urbanized groups (rural Abkhazians and urban Mongolians) were excluded from analysis due to the specificity of the dynamic lines of height gains. The factor analysis established auton-omy of pubertal growth acceleration of male and female teenagers — the first factor describes growth activity for males, the second one — for females. The analysis of intergeneration dynamics of age at peak height velocity, on the example of Moscow boys and girls, established, that the used parameter might indicate occasional changes of quality of life of a population (for ex-ample, introduction of free school lunches during the NEP period), as well as more global changes (intensified urbanization throughout the 20th century). The results of the study suggest that the variability of the growth activity peak parameters indicate significant social/anthropogenic base of chronobiological status of the population and independent growth strategies of males and females, which allows considering it as valid and promising biomarker in population growth studies.

Divided plates: unveiling Italy's unequal school food policies

ABSTRACT Despite the benefits of school meals, their provision is often not universal, being it an on-demand, pay-for-service, with the risk of creating significant disparities in their accessibility across schools, regions and social groups. In this paper, we explore food school food policies in Italy from this perspective, analysing the unequal distribution of the service and reflecting upon the implications. Our findings reveal huge disparities that reflect and exacerbate wider social, economic, territorial, employment and gender inequalities. We argue that the current regulatory approach contributes to exacerbating those disparities, and present policy recommendations aimed at extending the service.

The Relationship Between Schools and the Food and Beverage Industry in Guatemala: In-Depth Interviews with School Principals

ABSTRACT Schools are considered a point of sale (POS) channel to reach students with ultra-processed foods and beverages (UPFB) advertising and products. We sought to determine the type of relationship between schools and the UPFB industry in Guatemala City. During 2020, we interviewed 20 school principals. Descriptive statistics and inductive thematic coding were used for the analysis. Schools struggle with commercialism by engaging in unregulated relationships with the industry where they become a place of commercial value mediated by events sponsorship and exclusive contracts based on trust, among other strategies. School commercialism needs to be restricted to improve school food environments.

Investigating the effect of a school-based WASH intervention on soil-transmitted helminth and schistosome infections and nutritional status of school children in Ethiopia: a quasi-experimental study

BackgroundThe impact of access to improved water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health education on large-scale deworming programs aimed at controlling soil-transmitted helminth (STH) and schistosome (SCH) infections has not been well studied. We assessed the additional impact of improved WASH infrastructure and health education at schools on STH and SCH infections in Ethiopia.MethodsThe study used a quasi-experimental design under which 30 schools were assigned to either an intervention (15 schools) or control (15 schools) arm. Both arms received a standard deworming treatment and lunch. In the intervention arm, improved WASH and health education were provided. At three consecutive time points (baseline in 2013, 2014 and 2015), the prevalence and intensity of STH and SCH infections and the nutritional status [hemoglobin concentrations and physical growth (height and weight)] were determined. To verify whether interventions were successfully implemented, the WASH status at school and the student knowledge, attitudes and practices related to WASH (WASH-KAP) were recorded. Differences in metrics between arms at baseline (2013) and follow-up (2015) were assessed both within and between the arms.ResultsA significant increase in scores for both the school WASH and student KAP was found in the intervention arm, indicating successful implementation of the intervention. The prevalence of any STH infection was significantly reduced in the intervention arm but not in the control arm (F = 4.486, p = 0.034). There was a significantly greater reduction in the intensity of infection of hookworm and Ascaris lumbricoides compared to baseline in both arms. The intervention did not affect school children’s height-for-age z-score (intervention arm * time coef = 0.12, p = 0.400) and body mass index-for-age z-scores (intervention * time coef = − 0.06, p = 0.526). Hemoglobin concentrations increased significantly more in the control than the intervention arm (coef = − 0.16, p = 0.006).ConclusionsAlthough the intervention did increase school WASH and student WASH-KAP, our study found poor evidence of the additional benefit of improved WASH and health education to deworming and school food programs on parasite re-infection and the health outcomes of children.Graphical

Trends in the school lunch program: Changes in selection, nutrition & health

There has been significant national attention to the issue of childhood obesity, leading policymakers to reform the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to include stricter nutritional requirements. We use data on school lunch menus to document improvements in the nutritional quality of school meals between 1991 and 2010. We then evaluate how this change in nutritional content maps into obesity outcomes, using panel data on a nationally representative cohort of children, tracking them from kindergarten entry in fall 2010 through the end of fifth grade in spring 2016. We find little evidence that participation in the school lunch program leads to weight gain, as measured by changes in obesity, overweight, and BMI. These results suggest that improvements in the nutritional content of school lunches have been largely successful in reversing the previously negative relationship between school lunches and childhood obesity.

Free school meals and cognitive ability: Evidence from China's student nutrition improvement plan.

The China Student Nutrition Improvement Plan (SNIP) covers 40.6 million students in the compulsory education stage, accounting for 42% of all students enrolled in rural compulsory education in 2021. This paper utilizes the county-by-county rollout of the SNIP and estimates the effect of this nutritional intervention on students' cognitive outcomes. We find that SNIP increases math test scores but has a statistically insignificant effect on verbal achievement. The effect is greater for middle school students and children from disadvantaged families. The SNIP affects the cognitive performance of students by improving their health status, increasing school attendance, fostering good study habits, raising educational expectations, and improving the human capital of peers.

The Swedish School Meal Heritage — Memories of Food, Taste, and Commensality

AbstractIn Sweden, free school lunch has been served for more than a hundred years, and it is now a democratic right of all elementary school children. The school meal has always been associated with different opinions and subject to much debate. The aim of the study is to explore school meal food and taste memories in a convenient sample of Swedish adults. A web-based survey was carried out in the summer of 2020. The 246 respondents attended school between the 1940s and the early 2000s. The material was collectively analyzed using NVivo 12 Pro (QSR International), resulting in two overarching themes. “The traditional school food heritage” theme consisted of accounts of traditional Swedish food through the ages and meanings attached to it. Memories were connected to likes and dislikes of certain foods and dishes. “The social school food heritage” theme consisted of accounts of coercion, control, and peer pressure, but also joy, friendship, and commensality. The Swedish school meal is a shared experience surrounded by strong feelings and memories regarding the food and the context. It means a lot both culturally and socially, acting as a carrier of a common food heritage.

Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Research on School Catering

AbstractIn Hungary, about half of the 3–18 age group has regularly used school food service. This paper focuses on the operation and social embeddedness of school canteens and the at-home eating habits of the families involved. My conclusions are based on the findings of my interdisciplinary research group. Ethnographers from the RCH Institute of Ethnology and dietitians from the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition have been studying school food from 2018 to 2023. We selected a few model settlements: in addition to the capital, Budapest, three smaller towns, and two villages. Through questionnaires, interviews, and fieldwork observations, we investigated cooking, serving, meal courses, meal time, eating habits, preferences, as well as the nutritional knowledge of students, teachers, kitchen staff, and parents. Our goal, among other things, is to collect best practices and facilitate communication between participants. Some examples from our research highlight the special role of the centrally regulated school food in local food culture, and difficulties with social and historical roots can occasionally hamper school lunches in becoming a socially accepted model of a healthy diet. The school canteen works best at sites where cooking takes place within the school premises. There is a strong connection between the kitchen staff and the teachers, and they work together in the interest of the children. The value of food and its appreciation is demonstrated by how it is treated and how it is talked about. Communication about food in the canteen should be based on food preparation at home, where parents and children work together. The operation of canteens has become particularly problematic following the measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic. A sustainable, enjoyable canteen can only be realized through the regular communication of schools and school kitchens, as well as children and their parents. Our findings are presented to our respondents, along with providing them with a comparison of different examples.

School Meals on the Menu

School Meals on the Menu

The “School Meals Market” in Hungary — Typical Characteristics of Demand and Supply

AbstractThe present study examines the Hungarian practice of public catering for children from an economic perspective, bearing in mind that the production and consumption of food is, at the same time, an economic activity. Taking this approach, we focus on which institutions contribute to or hinder efficiency, by which we mean the efforts of economic agents to generate maximum welfare from the available (meager) resources. For social reasons, the supply of public catering for children is a statutory obligation on the part of local authorities, where efficiency must be combined with social considerations. The study reviews the rationing mechanism of school meals catering as a public service, looking first at the main factors determining the level of demand for public catering for children, and then at the main factors that influence supply.

Urban and Rural Attitudes toward School Food

AbstractIn the social sciences, it is a classic practice to contrast the development of the countryside and the city as two endpoints of a chain. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, the validity of the rural-urban dichotomy has been increasingly questioned, and we are now talking about two interconnected and complementary systems instead. In examining contemporary school meals, we ourselves observed this close and varied pattern of intertwining between the city and the countryside. Therefore, we believe it is useful to identify rural and urban features in contemporary public catering practices, and to outline mixed models that can be placed between the two endpoints in space and time. All of this can be edifying because urbanized foodways, following current food health and gastronomic trends, sustainability, climate and environmental protection requirements, as well as social considerations, return from time to time to the old village farming practices and foodways in various ways, and utilize knowledge related to traditional farming. Illustrated with specific examples, the study outlines three types of school catering models, from the oldest practice called “rural” to the “urban” (urbanized) type. A comparison of these types of public catering practices reveals the problems observed in today’s public catering.

Children Don't Like Eating What They're Supposed to Eat… A Study of Public Catering for Children in Hungary from a Historical Perspective

AbstractChildhood nutrition is an important element of lifestyle research, since the regularity and nutritional content of our meals as children, and the way in which they are eaten, determine our physical and mental health throughout our lives. Prior to 2018, there was no basic interdisciplinary research on this topic in Hungary, thus to fill the gap, an interdisciplinary research group was established in 2018 at the Institute of Ethnography, which carried out nationwide research. The present study is based on fieldwork undertaken by the author in two schools — the János Lenkey Primary School in Eger (formerly Primary School No. 1) and the Tamás Bolyki Primary School in Ózd — as well as a large amount of information gleaned from questionnaires and interviews. My research was also extended in terms of a historical and geographical perspective: I studied archival sources and expanded the field of my investigations by including Salgótarján, a research location familiar from my earlier research, which provided a vantage point alongside Ózd and Eger, as a third city typical of Northern Hungary. Public catering for children has undergone significant changes in the last six to seven years, although prior to this it had appeared relatively uniform, in line with the ingredients available at the time. The obligation to provide public catering and the general obligation to work, which began in the Rákosi era and culminated in the Kádár era, significantly changed family eating habits. Traditional elements typical of a particular locality disappeared as the globalization efforts of socialism were accomplished. The ever-decreasing amount of time devoted to preparing, cooking, and consuming food moved society in the direction of canteens, fast-food restaurants, and later, after the regime change, global fast-food chains. Education on proper nutrition is not currently part of academic teacher training, thus for want of a better alternative, teachers organize children's school meals based on their own experience and socialization or following the school's regulations (where they exist), without having a unified concept. The number of meals eaten at home has been reduced to light breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, with families mostly sitting down together at the table for dinner, when they often consume ready meals. Lack of contact with foodstuffs and with the person preparing the food has a negative impact on children's psychological development. Relying on extensive basic research and participant observation, and through the joint efforts of specialists from several fields of the social sciences, a significant improvement could be achieved in both public catering and education on healthy nutrition.

How Do Food Service Managers Look at School Catering? A Qualitative Content Analysis of a Roundtable Discussion on School Meals Provision

AbstractChildren are a vulnerable group in terms of obesity: nearly 20% of Hungarian kindergarten and school-aged children are overweight or obese. School catering plays a decisive role in shaping children's nutritional behavior. To support the prevention of obesity and to increase the quality of children's diets, legislation passed in 2014 included provisions on school catering. This paper provides a qualitative content analysis of a roundtable discussion on the school catering system that took place at an interdisciplinary conference, with the aim of identifying the most important messages about school meals conveyed by the discussion. During the qualitative analysis of the roundtable discussion, seven main categories emerged: factors supporting the acceptance/implementation of public catering; factors hindering the acceptance/implementation of public catering; everyday problems in the implementation of public catering; the task of caterers and public catering; the transformation of public catering; cooperation among parties with an interest in public catering; and factors helping children to cooperate. The co-occurrence network of subcategories and values can be broken down into one large component and several separate, small components. Thus, it can be concluded that the majority of subthemes and values are grouped into a coherent system. The results point to the key role of school catering in healthy nutrition and nutrition education, and the importance of close cooperation among parties with an interest in school catering to promote the social acceptance of catering and the prevention of childhood obesity.

Meal Provision in Schools and in the Street. The Historical Roots of School Catering in Budapest

AbstractThe introduction of school meals in the 20th century has its roots in several parallel but independent initiatives. The common source of these initiatives was the practice of philanthropy and charity, based on religious upbringing. Public catering for children was first institutionalized in Budapest by a charitable organization, the Children's Society (Gyermekbarátok Egyesülete), after which several denominational associations followed suit. In the early 20th century, the City of Budapest itself also took the initiative, setting up its first daycare centers where needy children were not only fed but also participated in educational and recreational activities. Resources for social welfare were eroded during the war, thus foreign aid organizations stepped in to help the children of Budapest immediately after the war, while childcare became the sole responsibility of the public authorities from the 1920s. From then on, the state covered the entire costs of providing meals, similar to the system of soup kitchens established specifically for supplying food to destitute adults.

An online survey capturing the views of stakeholders on primary school food systems across the four UK nations

BackgroundIn 2020, the Generating Excellent Nutrition in UK Schools (GENIUS) Network was established to develop an understanding of the school food system across the four UK nations. This study explores stakeholders’ views (headteachers, teachers, parents and pupils) on what works well, the challenges, and what an ideal primary school food system includes.MethodsAn online ‘School Food Survey’ was created in Qualtrics XM including closed and open-ended questions about the primary school food system. The Qualtrics link was distributed to stakeholders with an interest in school food through key contacts and networks across the four UK nations (21st June to 21st July and September 2021). Responses from the open-ended questions were exported from Qualtrics into Excel and analysed using SPSS. Aspects of qualitative content analysis were applied to summarise, code and quantify responses. Identified codes were entered by stakeholder, for example, parents and their response to the question into a Matrix table to allow identification of categories, themes and interpretation.ResultsA total of 509 participants completed the survey: most participants were from Scotland (n = 281; 55%) and England (n = 213; 42%) and were parents (n = 394). There were some consistent views across stakeholder responses, for example, the range of healthy options, costs, and portion sizes offered to pupils. Parents views varied, with some expressing the range of healthy options worked well and others reporting too many unhealthy choices. The cost of school food and school food funding presented challenges for both parents and schools. For parents, an ideal school food system would include a wide variety of fresh healthy food choices that were made on site, use quality produce, be inclusive for all cultures and diets, and provide food portion sizes appropriate for pupils ages.ConclusionsThe findings iterate the diversity and some inconsistencies between stakeholders, emphasising the complexity and competing tensions school food systems encounter. Parental involvement and consideration of school-level and national factors are important when identifying challenges, what works well and describing an ideal primary school food system.