Maslow's hierarchy and pupils’ suggestions for developing school meals

Abstract

Purpose

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is little used in research when analysing pupils’ needs, wants, and motivations related to food. To fill that gap, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the pupils’ suggestions for developing school meals in Finland from the viewpoint of Maslow's hierarchy.

Design/methodology/approach

Previous research on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as well as pupils’ needs for school meals are briefly illustrated. The empirical qualitative data are collected from four comprehensive schools by using a sentence completion method.

Findings

The findings introduce pupils’ suggestions for developing school meals from the viewpoint of a plate model and its items linked with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Most of the suggestions are related to physiological needs; i.e. main course, salad, milk and bread. Also other needs, such as safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self‐actualization needs receive suggestions.

Practical implications

The practical implications are that the pupils have all the five levels of needs related to school meals which have to be taken into consideration when developing school meals within the curriculum.

Originality/value

The paper is useful for all those whose concern it is to develop school meals.

Citation

Tikkanen, I. (2009), "Maslow's hierarchy and pupils’ suggestions for developing school meals", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 39 No. 5, pp. 534-543. https://doi.org/10.1108/00346650910992196