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The purpose of this paper is to report findings on an initiative set up by The Welsh Assembly Government to provide free, healthy breakfasts to primary school children throughout Wales.

The research employed a cluster randomised controlled trial design with 58 schools in South, West and North Wales. Quantitative measures were taken at baseline, four months and 12 months.

With the injection of more money and effective services it was found that the free school breakfast initiative could help improve health and social inequalities.

This paper provides some of the background to the initiative, describes the evaluation and highlights some of the key methodological issues that arose during the course of the research.

Social, physical and temporal characteristics are known to influence the eating experience and the effectiveness of nutritional policies. As the school meal service features prominently in UK nutritional and health promotion policy, the paper's aim is to investigate the characteristics of the primary school dining context and their implications for eating behaviours.

A case study of one local authority in Wales was conducted involving 11 primary schools stratified into socio‐economic quartiles. Focussed observations were carried out over two to three lunchtimes per school to explore their social, physical and temporal characteristics. These were supplemented by semi‐structured interviews with catering staff and midday supervisors.

The dining halls had numerous generic attributes (e.g. accommodation, equipment, length of lunchtime, social actors). These interacted to have a direct, but not necessarily positive, bearing on food choice and consumption. Overcrowded, multi‐purpose dining halls coupled with time pressures and dynamic social situations detracted from the eating experience and the ability of staff to encourage children to eat.

Without addressing these underlying issues, school nutritional policy may only play a limited role in influencing what children eat. It is recommended that policy places a greater emphasis on factors such as the eating environment; the time available for eating; and the role of the midday supervisor.

Previous studies of dining halls have generally been part of process evaluations of nutritional interventions. This study adds value by conducting a focussed investigation into the relationship between the dining hall environment and eating behaviours.