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This study aims to examine Victorian primary school parents’ perspectives about a potential school-provided lunch program (LP).

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.

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.

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.

During the COVID-19 pandemic people worldwide in the same household spent more time together and school children engaged in remote learning throughout extended lockdowns and restrictions. The present study aimed to explore parents' perceptions of their involvement and enjoyment in food-related interactions with their children during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated lockdowns/restrictions and changes in their children's food intake, especially children's lunches during the remote learning period.

Data from parents (n = 136) were collected via an online survey in 2020. Parents' responses to closed-ended questions were analysed via descriptive statistics and open-ended responses were analysed thematically.

Most parents (62%) reported that they interacted more with their school-aged (5–17 years) children about food during COVID-19 compared to pre-pandemic times. These interactions included cooking, menu planning, eating, conversations around food, and gardening. Most parents (74%) prepared meals with their children during the pandemic and most of them (89%) reported that they enjoyed it. Most parents (n = 91 out of 121) perceived that their children's lunches during remote learning were different to when attending school in person and these changes included eating hot and home-cooked food and more elaborate meals.

This study sheds important insights into a sample of Australian parents' food-related interactions with their school-aged children during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns and parents' observations and perceptions of changes in the children's food intake during the remote learning period.

This study aims to gain an understanding from parents and teachers about the types of food provision practices and venues, and the food-related policies and rules in primary schools in Australia; and investigate any differences in the presence of policies and rules based on the school location and school type.

Data were collected via two online surveys from August 2019 to March 2020. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyse quantitative responses. Respondents' written responses to food-related policies were categorised into groups.

The two most common food provision services were canteen and lunch order services (mentioned by 72 and 55% of respondents, respectively). Of the 425 respondents whose schools had a canteen (parents and teachers together), 62% reported their school implements a healthy school canteen policy. Significantly more parents compared to teachers, and more respondents from government schools compared to non-government schools stated that their school had implemented such a policy. Approximately half of the respondents (47%) stated their school had implemented other food-related policies and/or rules. These policies or rules belonged to four categories: avoiding certain foods, avoiding food sharing, avoiding food packages and promoting healthy eating.

This study shows the disparities exist in implementing food-related policies among primary schools in Australia. Nutrition promoters and policy planners should consider these results and find the best mechanisms to minimise the gaps in policy implementation.

Primary schools provide continuous, intensive contact with large numbers of children starting from a young age, thus providing an appropriate setting for the promotion of healthy eating through food and nutrition education (FNE). This qualitative study explores the views of Australian primary school parents about FNE in primary schools.

In total, 19 parents of primary school children from Victoria participated in semi-structured interviews. Audio recordings were transcribed and underwent thematic analysis using Nvivo. A total of three themes emerged: FNE topics currently taught in primary schools, essential food skills and knowledge for primary school children and the importance of FNE.

Most parents thought that FNE is as important as the core subjects of primary school. Parental support for FNE, which is delivered over a prolonged period, and expanded by hands-on content such as cooking and gardening classes was evident. Parents viewed these classes as likely to improve children's food-related knowledge and healthy eating behaviours. Parents expressed appreciation for schools' emphasis on food sustainability and its alignment with school policies and practices. Parents were keen to see more sustainability included in the curriculum.

These results may have implications for curriculum developers and schools, as the findings can assist the design of food and nutrition curricula for primary schools which can empower children as well as their families to make better food-related decisions.

Australian parents' views of FNE in primary schools have been under examined.

Briefing in a project delivery context is one of the most critical factors in the project success. It defines client requirements, translates these needs into design criteria and generates a design concept. A lack of briefing clarity is one of the main causes of design changes and may lead to project cost and time overruns. This research aims to assess the brief clarity and its influence on project cost and duration.

This research created the PDRI-SD technique by utilising a system dynamic (SD) approach and project definition rating index (PDRI) tool to model the complex system of project briefing and associated variables. Stock and flow diagrams of the main subsystems including the briefing, the detailed design and the construction process, were developed to assess the influence of brief clarity on project cost and time. The PDRI was adopted to measure the briefing clarity and apply in the model. PDRI-SD was then tested in Australian building refurbishment projects to assess the model's effectiveness.

The simulation results indicated that a minor reduction of the lack of clarity throughout the initial briefing process could significantly mitigate unpredicted delay and cost overruns during the detailed design and the construction stage.

This research contributed to the existing body of knowledge by developing an effective technique to measure the impact of lack of brief clarity on project cost and time performance. PDRI-SD can also aid project clients to predict the influence of the initial defined brief on the detailed design and construction process using the historical data of similar previous projects. It provides clients with feedback, indicating whether the brief meets project requirements or whether parts of the project brief require more clarification/rectification before the project handover to the builders.

Secondary school food education provides students with opportunities to build lifelong healthy dietary practices. A number of stakeholder groups are important for the success of this form of education. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine young adults’ and parents’ opinions of secondary school food education.

An online survey was administered to 1,086 respondents drawn from a commercial research panel.

In total, 50-60 per cent of all respondents agreed that food education should be compulsory for years seven to ten and 31-32 per cent of respondents agreed that it should be compulsory for years 11 and 12. Almost 69 per cent suggested one to three hours per week for food education. More than 75 per cent of respondents agreed that there should be a non-compulsory food and nutrition subject for year 11 and 12 students and believed that this subject would help students to develop their food-related knowledge and skills.

There is a gap between parents’ and young adults’ views of school food education and what is actually practiced in Australian secondary schools. Obtaining their opinions in future food-related education and policy reforms could help design and deliver food education to better meet the expectations of its recipients: students and their families.

The examination of large number of young adults’ and parents’ opinions of school food education makes this study unique.

Nutrition education plays a significant role in inculcating lifelong healthy dietary behaviours among adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the opinions of parents and teachers regarding nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools.

A cross-sectional, self-administered, paper-based survey comprising both closed- and open-ended questions was completed by 32 teachers and 280 parents who were recruited from five private English-speaking secondary schools in Kolkata, India. Descriptive and cross-tabulation analyses were conducted to compare the responses of teachers and parents. Thematic data analysis informed by template analysis technique was performed to evaluate the qualitative data.

While the curriculum was considered interesting and easy to understand, the gendered nature of the curriculum, excessive rote learning and lack of synchrony between the curriculum and school food services were highlighted as shortcomings of the existing curriculum. The need for the dissemination of food skills either through a compulsory food and nutrition curriculum or through extra-mural activities was expressed by most respondents. Both these ideas were indicative of strong support and motivation for modification in the current curriculum.

These findings emphasise the support for a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to inculcate experiential culinary skills and comprehensive nutrition knowledge in Indian adolescents, thus improving their nutritional and health profiles.

This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the views of parents and teachers about the status of food and nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools.

Teachers disseminate food knowledge and skills in secondary school curricula that provide essential skills for a healthy life. The purpose of this paper is to explore Australian secondary school teachers’ views of healthy eating and their sources of information in planning their food, nutrition and health curriculum.

Secondary school teachers’ perceptions were explored through semi-structured, in-depth interviews that were de-identified and transcribed verbatim. Codes were ascribed to sections of the transcripts and throughout the process of inductive thematic analysis. The teachers’ responses were grouped into five main themes: approaches to teaching healthy eating, sources of food and nutrition information, curriculum planning, teaching goals and teacher career influences.

The teachers were clear about the aims and importance of teaching healthy eating in an experiential curriculum. They reported that teaching healthy eating assists the health and well--being of adolescents and their families. The effectiveness of current teaching in Australian secondary schools may be compromised by the positioning of food, nutrition and health topics in two separate curriculum areas: technologies and health and physical education, and competing school priorities and resources that limit the students’ exposures to food curricula. The teachers sourced food information from online websites, popular culture and social media. Their knowledge and views of healthy eating appeared to be associated with their interests, life experiences, education and employment histories.

These findings can assist with health promotion and education policy development. They can assist the design of healthy eating curriculum approaches for secondary schools and professional development courses for teachers, which will foster healthy food habits for adolescents, and their families in the future.

Secondary school teacher perceptions of the place of healthy eating in food, and nutrition curricula have been under examined.

The purpose of this paper is to understand middle class household food providers’ attitudes to the regulation of food marketing and the promotion of healthy food practices.

A cross-sectional, online questionnaire survey was administered to 3,925 urban respondents in Indonesia, Melbourne, Shanghai, Singapore and Vietnam. Cross-tabulation, confirmatory factor analyses and multiple regression analyses were employed.

Most respondents supported government communications to promote healthy eating and to a lesser extent, regulatory measures to control unhealthy food marketing. Personal values and country of residence were more strongly associated with the respondents’ views than demographic variables. Overall, strongest support for nutrition promotion and for stricter regulation of food marketing was seen in Shanghai, Indonesia and Vietnam. Broadly, two groups were identified across the region: those who held equality-nature or tradition-security-conformity personal values, who disapproved of food marketing but supported government health promotion campaigns, and, those with stronger hedonist values who held opposite views.

First, a wider range of personal values could be included in future studies to better represent Asian values. Second, changes in population views could be assessed in future longitudinal studies. Finally, future studies should include dietary assessments and the views of people from a variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

These findings suggest that health policy makers and communicators need to frame their communications to match the world views of household food providers in their countries.

The study provides confirmation of attitude-values theories within five different countries in the Asia Pacific region and demonstrates the importance of personal values and country of residence in influencing food providers’ views.

A school canteen can serve as an important setting for nutrition and health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to describe secondary school students’ perceptions of Indian school canteens.

Convenience sampling informed the recruitment of 1,026 year 9 students from nine private schools in Kolkata, India, and data were collected through self-completion of paper-based questionnaires. Frequencies and χ² analyses were computed.

The school children reported that energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods like French fries (90.4 per cent), pizza (79.5 per cent) and cakes (69.2 per cent) were frequently available in the school canteens. However, only a few students (10.2 per cent) acknowledged the availability of nutritious foods like fruits. Only a small proportion of students were content with the nutritional quality of food supplied in the canteens (3.6 per cent), the cost of food (8.7 per cent) and availability of fresh foods like fruits (5.5 per cent). The provision of healthy foods in the school canteen was supported by two-thirds of the respondents (65.9 per cent); however, only a small proportion (18.3 per cent) supported the restriction of fried foods in school canteens.

These findings underscore the need for the design and implementation of healthy school canteen policies to foster healthy eating habits among Indian adolescents.

This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the views of adolescents regarding school food services in the Indian context.