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Presents new data comparing the nutrient content of school meals to proposed standards and showing the contribution of school meals to the overall diet of seven to eight‐year‐old children. School meals contributed 24 per cent of daily energy intake and 17 to 35 per cent of daily nutrient intake but compared unfavourably to the proposed standards, being too low in certain micronutrients and too high in percentage energy from fat. However, since the overall diets of the children were deemed satisfactory, it was concluded that standards were not necessary for energy and the majority of nutrients. A targeted approach, recommending suitable levels for nutrients of particular concern, was suggested as a more viable option.

“Million fewer buy school meals”, “School meals fall angers M.P.s”, “School meals shock for Minister” — these are some of the headlines in the national press in recent months as a result of the increase in price of school meals from 1st April, 1971. Some claim that the lower numbers taking meals are partially seasonal but one must accept the fact that there has been a significant reduction varying in extent over the country. In my own authority from April to June, 1971 there was a decrease of 17 per cent in paid meals with a slight increase in free meals issued. Adjacent authorities quote a decrease of over 30 per cent.

Like many other countries, a reform of school meals policies has been implemented in Portugal, wherein nutritional and health criteria are considered in the design of the public plate. Given that a large literature on school meals focus on cities seen as sites for promising transformation regarding health, resilience and sustainability, it is pertinent to examine how these policies are being received in rural areas. Similar to other vulnerable regions in southern Europe, rural areas in Portugal have been affected by depopulation, the re-localisation of public services (e.g. schools, health centres and courts of justice) to larger conurbations, a drastic reduction of farming areas and its reconversion from sites of production to sites of consumption that thrive on tourism. While research on children’s attitudes, experiences and practices in rural areas had picked up the attention of social scientists, research on children’s relations and engagements with school meals in these areas does not abound. This chapter addresses three issues: first, how the catering staff and health professionals experience children’s engagements with school meals after the policy reform; second, how the discourses of the school staff and parents around the rural and gastro-idylls contrast with the reported food practices and experiences of everyday life, and third, how the multiple engagements of children with animals, plants and other nature conflict with or are juxtaposed to the images of the rural idyll. Drawing from focus groups material with children aged between 7 and 9 years old living in the rural hinterland of an inland medium-size city in Portugal, focus groups with parents and interviews with stakeholders (e.g. school and kitchen staff, local authorities, nutritionists and catering firms) the chapter aims at contributing to a broader understanding of children lived experiences with food consumption in rural contexts.

The present study compared the calculated nutritional content of midday meals eaten by primary schoolchildren (n=90, 45 boys, 45 girls, mean age 10.5±0.4 years), in the Portsmouth area, with the Caroline Walker Trust (CWT) published guidelines. Comp‐Eat 5 was used to determine the dietary content of children’s midday meals. Children’s lunchtime meals were not deficient in essential micronutrients; however, the macronutrient content of their diet differed significantly from the published guidelines. Data analysis also revealed that significant differences were evident between the macronutrient content of the two meal subgroups (food provided by the school, referred to as “school meals” and food brought from home, referred to as a “packed lunch”). In conclusion, several changes need to be made to midday meals, eaten by primary schoolchildren, before they will meet the CWT guidelines, and the two meal subgroups require separate solutions.

Improper levels or excess of iodine may present a greater risk to health, for this reason, this paper aims to assess the iodine content present in salt and estimate the iodine concentration in school meals in a Brazilian northeast region.

Six samples of different salt brands sold in the city of Lagarto, Sergipe, Brazil were gathered for analyzing iodate concentration. The amounts of salt added to meals of four schools in the city and the weight of the provided meals were recorded during two consecutive days of gathering, thus obtaining data to estimate the iodine content of these meals. The rest of the meals and the nutritional composition of school meals were analyzed. A questionnaire for participants on the perception of salt was applied. For data analysis, α = 5% was used.

The iodine concentration in all salt samples followed legislation (15 to 45 mg of iodine/kg of salt), with the average of iodine ranged between 26.5 ± 1.29 and 33.9 ± 2.49 mg/kg (p < 0.001). The estimated iodine content in consumed school meals was 0.025 mg (25 µg), in meals of schools A and C, it was 0.03 ± 0.02 mg, and to schools B and D, it was 0.02 ± 0.01 mg (p < 0.001). Percentages of rest of the meals greater than 10% were found and the assessed food preparation showed low caloric and nutritional values.

The iodine content is in accordance with the salt iodization policy in Brazil, and that the average iodine estimate in school meals was considered adequate for this population.

Public food procurement (PFP) plays an important role in establishing agri-food systems. The study explores local food system stakeholders' response to PFP interventions by addressing the question of how PFP transforms agri-food systems and how this new agri-food ecosystem is governed.

This article presents and discusses a unique case study of Jeonbuk, a rural province in South Korea, which successfully transformed its agri-food system into an ecosystem through its sustainability-oriented innovations (SOIs) among born ecopreneur farmers. This case not only offers insights into a novel way to create value chains through legislative, executive and judicial governance but also extends the body of knowledge on agri-food systems by introducing the concept of an agri-food ecosystem.

The findings indicate the importance of the ecosystem governance and knowledge exchange among internal and external ecosystem stakeholders. In particular, PFP institutions play a crucial role in facilitating the operation of public meal centers and cooperation among actors.

Taking an ecosystem lens to agri-food systems may offer agricultural cooperatives a wider perspective and better understanding of the governance structures necessary to successfully execute public interventions. Lastly, the Korean case differs from other developing countries, but its role model qualities could help to implement successful school meal programs elsewhere.

This paper reviewed and applied a conceptual framework aimed at identifying the role of PFP institutions in the value chain governance by studying a case study of a South Korean local school meal program. The study further extends the agricultural cooperatives research and contributes to a better understanding of the role of a municipality and an agri-food intermediary in the governance process involving producers and kitchens.

The Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSHP) in Nigeria provides primary school pupils across the country with one meal daily. The purpose of this paper is to standardize the HGSHP meals in Osun State and determine the energy, protein and mineral contribution to the school children's daily nutrient intake.

All the HGSHP meals served school children were studied. Questionnaire, standardization of recipe and chemical analysis were employed to evaluate the HGSHP meals and to suggest improvement.

All the meals were cooked. Dishes composed of a mixture of a legume (cowpea) commonly called beans, a cereal (maize or rice) or tuber (yam) taken with a soup or stew and fish or egg. The bean meals were high in protein and carbohydrate. All the dishes had very low zinc content and did not meet 30 per cent of the school children's daily zinc requirements.

This paper may be the first to evaluate the nutritional contribution of school meals in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the self‐reported diet behaviour of pupils in four Finnish schools.

Overall, eight theoretical views on school meals are briefly illustrated. Empirical data were collected in 2007 from four comprehensive schools, where the school kitchen types were either a preparing kitchen or a heating kitchen. A total of 168 6th‐9th graders returned the questionnaire. The data were analysed by using factor and cluster analyses, one‐way Anova and F‐tests.

A total of six factors illustrating the dimensions of self‐reported school meal diet behaviour were found. They were titled as “learning”, “energy”, “economy”, “health”, “opposition to school meals”, and finally “impact of social‐ecological environment”. Based on the factor scores, the following two clusters emerged: “Pupils having a positive attitude towards school meals and learning” and “Impressionable pupils having a negative attitude towards school meals”.

The findings indicate that information on healthy eating habits and nutritional information – including the plate model – should be targeted, both to the pupils and the parents. Also, the pupils' favourite dishes could be served more often.

The study provides up‐to‐date, cross‐sectional structure on self‐reported diet behaviour of pupils based on eight theoretical views. The paper is useful for those who are interested in and concerned with pupils' diet behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the difference in students’ preferences on weekly menu of school mid-day meal (MDM) program in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The study is based on primary structured questionnaire survey through personal interviews using multi-stage stratified sampling technique. This comprehensive survey covered 2,400 primary and upper primary students belonging to eight districts of Uttar Pradesh – Allahabad, Balrampur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Hathras, Kanpur Nagar, Mathura, Shahjahanpur and Varanasi. A total of 60 schools have been selected from each district, covering a total of 480 primary and upper primary schools. Simple statistical tools have been used to analyze the surveyed data such as cross-tabulation, percentage distribution and rank analysis. Further, six research hypotheses have been formulated to analyze the difference in school meal menu preferences among the students and χ2-statistics has been used to test the significance level of these hypotheses.

Survey results indicate that more than 90 percent students eat MDM in the school as per the weekly menu. Result of χ2-test indicates that choices on school meal menu among the students differ significantly across weekdays. Rice-pulses or rice-sambar served on Tuesday is reported to be the first preferred food of children given first preference by around 30 percent, followed by kadi-rice or kheer which is served on Wednesday. The results of χ2-tests exhibited a significant difference on weekly menu choices by gender, kitchen types, rural and urban locations and geographical regions. About 27 percent of the students reported that they want to have a change in the menu. When further probed about the kind of changes desired in the menu, puri-vegetables was found to be the most preferred choice of the respondents, beside halwa/kheer and rice with pulses/vegetables/kadi being the next preferred choices.

The present study provides managerial implications to the policy makers and scheme/program implementers for better understanding of the students’ preferences on school MDM weekly menu.

There are several evaluation studies undertaken by various agencies to assess the impact of MDM program on school attendance, retention and nutritional status of children. However, there are limited numbers of studies available, which have measured the students’ preferences on school MDM menu.

This paper aims to describe free school meals with respect to a plate model and to analyse how the meals were chosen by pupils at Finnish comprehensive schools.

The paper reviews the history of the Finnish school catering system and free school meals. It also briefly analyses theoretical approaches to school meals and introduces a plate model based on national nutritional recommendations. The empirical data were collected in 2003 by the second author of this paper. In total, 3,041 pupils returned the questionnaire from ten comprehensive schools. Data from the pupils' school meal choices were analysed using one‐way ANOVA and F‐tests.

The findings indicate that there were significant differences in the chosen school meals between boys and girls, between classes, and between schools. Thus, the plate model has not been followed when choosing the free school meals.

This paper has, for example, the following implication: school meals should not be considered with respect to food only, but should be viewed from a broader perspective, namely that of pupils' needs and wants.

School meals have previously been studied with multiple theoretical approaches. The authors believe that the broader focus on pupils and their socio‐ecological environment will further increase understanding of their food choices in Finland.