Victorian (Australian) parents are receptive to a primary school-provided lunch program
ISSN: 1747-3616
Article publication date: 29 April 2024
Issue publication date: 20 November 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine Victorian primary school parents’ perspectives about a potential school-provided lunch program (LP).
Design/methodology/approach
An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in Victoria, Australia, in 2022 to explore parents’ perceptions regarding the lunch menu, funding source, amount willing to pay, frequency of meals and special dietary needs of a school-provided LP.
Findings
Over half of parents (57% out of 359) said they would allow their child to participate in a school LP, 34% were unsure and only 9% said they would not. The opportunity for hot cooked lunches at school and the perceived convenience for parents were the top two reasons for favouring such a program. Fifty-eight percent were in favour of hybrid-type funding from both the government and parents. The most preferred amount to pay per meal was AUD5-6 (43%), followed by AUD3-4 (25%). Parents expected meals to be healthy and made from whole food and cater to the special dietary and cultural needs of their children. They also expected enough time to be allocated so children could eat and enjoy the meals.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore Victorian parents’ perceptions regarding the above aspects of a school-provided LP. The findings suggest that parents are receptive to a school-provided LP; they, however, did have several expectations regarding the menu and time for eating. These findings provide important directions for designing future school-provided LPs at primary schools in Australia.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Declaration of interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
The authors wish to acknowledge Amalie Pearce and Gunjit Kaur for their contributions in designing and pre-testing the survey.
Financial Support: This study was supported by an internal grant from Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University.
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Nanayakkara, J., Aydin, G., Booth, A.O., Worsley, A. and Margerison, C. (2024), “Victorian (Australian) parents are receptive to a primary school-provided lunch program”, Young Consumers, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-10-2023-1882 was published with incorrect affiliation details for Dr Worsley. This error was introduced in the production process and has now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
Citation
Nanayakkara, J., Aydin, G., Booth, A.O., Worsley, A. and Margerison, C. (2024), "Victorian (Australian) parents are receptive to a primary school-provided lunch program", Young Consumers, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 687-705. https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-10-2023-1882
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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