TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate determinants for the viability of school lunch programs with a zero‐price start‐up period.Design/methodology/approach– Data sources include application material, questionnaire surveys among the pupils, parents, and staff at the participating schools, follow‐up telephone interviews with the staff, as well as interviews with suppliers. Data are analysed using principal components analysis and logistic regression.Findings– An econometric analysis suggests that price, school size, demand‐stimulating activities related to the schools' support and the users' feeling of ownership, as well as internal professionalism and leadership in the implementation of the school lunch program are important for the viability of the program. These components may, to some extent, compensate for the gap between cost and users' willingness to pay for school lunches.Social implications– The study contributes to increase awareness of the many determinants and barriers for the viability of school lunches. Experience from the study demonstrates a significant challenge in making user requirements for quality, product diversity and willingness to pay meet with the costs of supplying school lunches.Originality/value– The focus on the economic viability on school lunches is a new approach to the topic compared to the literature, which mainly concentrates on the physical and environmental effects of providing food in schools VL - 115 IS - 7 SN - 0007-070X DO - 10.1108/BFJ-05-2011-0128 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-05-2011-0128 AU - Dejgård Jensen Jørgen AU - Smed Sinne AU - Raun Mørkbak Morten AU - Vogt‐Nielsen Karl AU - Malmgreen Marianne PY - 2013 Y1 - 2013/01/01 TI - Economic viability of new launched school lunch programmes T2 - British Food Journal PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 1038 EP - 1053 Y2 - 2024/04/20 ER -