Free school meals have a positive effect on the nutritional quality of school children’s lunches compared to packed lunches brought from home. If parents themselves have to pay for school meals the effect is not as good, as then only few school children take advantage of the offer. These findings appear from a PhD project at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.
Several studies show that children’s and adolescents’ lunches are too unhealthy. Therefore, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark has initiated a project about school meals. Danish schools could seek funds to implement a school food programme with free school meals for two months.
"...the nutritional quality of school children’s lunches improves if they get free school meals instead of packed lunches brought from home"
Marianne Sabinsky
In her PhD project, Marianne Sabinsky from the National Food Institute investigated how the project with free school meals affects the nutritional quality of school children’s lunches compared to packed lunches brought from home. A picture was taken of each child’s plate before and after lunch break, in this way the researcher obtained information about what had been eaten. The project involved 984 children aged 7-13 years.
Fewer children eat school meals when they have to pay
“The findings indicate that the nutritional quality of school children’s lunches improves if they get free school meals instead of packed lunches brought from home. However, if parents have to pay for school meals the quality of lunch is not affected in the same way, as only few children take advantage of the offer to buy a school meal”, says Marianne Sabinsky, PhD, academic officer at the National Food Institute.
When, after two months of free school meals, parents have to pay for meals themselves, school meals only constitute 7 % of all meals.
A need to promote healthier dietary habits
Previous studies undertaken at the National Food Institute show that Danish children eat too little fruit, vegetables, fish and wholegrain products whereas they eat too much sugar and saturated fat.
“Healthy dietary habits are important for optimal growth and development of children. Dietary habits are influenced by the wider environment, at the same time individual factors are important. Children spend many hours each day at school. Therefore, schools are a good place to work on promoting healthy dietary habits in children”, says Marianne Sabinsky.
”The study also indicates that there may be a big difference between what children have on their plates and what they eventually eat. Sometimes, lunch may include many vegetables, however, they are just left on the plate. Therefore, it was important to us to investigate what children actually eat, not what they are offered”, explains Marianne Sabinsky.
Read more
Here you can find Marianne Sabinsky’s PhD thesis: Healthy eating at schools - How does a school food programme affect the quality of dietary intake at lunch among children aged 7-13 years?
The project involved eight schools – four schools received funds for free school meals for two months, and at the four control schools the children had packed lunches at all measurements. Measurements of school children’s lunches took place before, during and after implementation of free school meals. The control schools resemble intervention schools in regard to geographic location, size and social status amongst the children’s families.
Please also read the news from the National Food Institute: Many Danish school children eat unhealthy lunches.