scholarly journals The Healthy School Canteen Programme: A Promising Intervention to Make the School Food Environment Healthier

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fréderike Mensink ◽  
Saskia Antoinette Schwinghammer ◽  
Astrid Smeets
Keyword(s):  
Food Environment ◽  
Eating Habits ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
School Food ◽  
School Directors ◽  
School Canteen ◽  
Healthy Eating Habits ◽  
School Food Environment ◽  
Food Decisions ◽  
School Cafeterias

The environment can exert a strong influence on people's food decisions. In order to facilitate students to make more healthy food choices and to develop healthy eating habits, it is important that the school food environment is healthy. The Healthy School Canteen programme of The Netherlands Nutrition Centre is an intervention that helps schools to make their cafeteria's offering healthier. A descriptive study was conducted by an independent research agency to survey the perceptions, experiences, and opinions of users of the programme (school directors, parents, students, and health professionals). Results show that directors and students of participating schools perceive their cafeteria's offering to be healthier after implementing the programme than prior to implementation. Next, further important results of the study are highlighted and relations with other projects, caveats, and practical recommendations are discussed. It is concluded that the Healthy School Canteen programme is a promising intervention to change the school food environment but that further research is needed to ultimately establish its effectiveness. Also, it will be a challenge to motivate all schools to enroll in the programme in order to achieve the goal of the Dutch Government of all Dutch school cafeterias being healthy by 2015.

scholarly journals Poor compliance with school food environment guidelines in elementary schools in Northwest Mexico: A cross-sectional study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0259720
Author(s):  
Yazmín Hugues ◽  
Rolando G. Díaz-Zavala ◽  
Trinidad Quizán-Plata ◽  
Camila Corvalán ◽  
Michelle M. Haby
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
School Food ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
School Canteen ◽  
School Food Environment ◽  
School Breakfast ◽  
Mexican Schools

Background In Mexico, 35.5% of school-age children were overweight or obese in 2018. The school food environment is important because children spend a significant part of their time at school and consume one-third to one-half of their daily meals there. In 2014, a Federal Government guideline for the sale and distribution of food and beverages in Mexican schools was published (the AGREEMENT) but the extent of its implementation is not known. Methods Descriptive cross-sectional study in a representative, random sample of elementary schools, using the tools of the INFORMAS network. Data collection included: a) an interview with a school authority; b) a checklist of items available in the school canteen; c) a checklist of the school breakfast menu; and d) an evaluation of the physical environment. The main indicators were: percentage of implementation (self-report) of the AGREEMENT and percentage of compliance (researcher verified) with the AGREEMENT (based on tools b and c). Results 119 schools participated (response rate 87.5%), with 15.1% (95%CI 9.2–22.8) of the schools reporting having fully implemented the AGREEMENT. However, only 1% (95%CI 0–5.3) of the school canteens and 71.4% (95%CI 57.8–82.7) of the school breakfast menus fully complied with the AGREEMENT. A variety of sugar-sweetened beverages and energy-dense, nutrient poor products were found in the school canteens. Further, only 43.7% of the water fountains in schools were functional and 23.4% were clean. In only 24.4% of schools had the school authorities received formal training related to the AGREEMENT and in 28.6% of schools had the parents received information about the AGREEMENT. Conclusion The AGREEMENT has been poorly implemented in elementary schools in Mexico. Actions are needed to encourage and support its full implementation to improve the food environment in Mexican schools.

Changes in a Middle School Food Environment Affect Food Behavior and Food Choices

2012 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug Wordell ◽  
Kenn Daratha ◽  
Bidisha Mandal ◽  
Ruth Bindler ◽  
Sue Nicholson Butkus
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Food Behavior ◽  
School Food ◽  
School Food Environment

Food procurement in English-language Canadian public schools: Opportunities and challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-99
Author(s):  
Shawna Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Nutritional Quality ◽  
English Language ◽  
Nutrient Content ◽  
Food Environments ◽  
School Food ◽  
Provincial Level ◽  
School Food Environment

This paper examines the changes to procurement for school food environments in Canada as a response to changes to nutrition regulations at the provincial level. Interviews with those working in school food environments across Canada revealed how changes to the nutrition requirements of foods and beverages sold in schools presented opportunities to not only improve the nutrient content of the items made available in school food environments, but also to include local producers and/or school gardens in procuring for the school food environment. At the same time, some schools struggle to procure nutritionally compliant foods due to increased costs associated with transporting produce to rural, remote, or northern communities as well as logistic difficulties like spoilage. Although the nutrition regulations have facilitated improvements to food environments in some schools, others require more support to improve the overall nutritional quality of the foods and beverages available to students at school.

The effect of changes to the school food environment on eating behaviours and/or body weight in children: A systematic review

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine E. Driessen ◽  
Adrian J. Cameron ◽  
Lukar E. Thornton ◽  
Samuel K. Lai ◽  
Lisa M. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Body Weight ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Eating Behaviours ◽  
School Food ◽  
School Food Environment

“Most of them are junk food but we did put fruit on there and we have water”

2015 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Waddingham ◽  
Stella Stevens ◽  
Kate Macintyre ◽  
Kelly Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Eating Habits ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Canteen

Purpose – The Australian Dietary Guidelines support good health and disease prevention. Children with healthy eating habits established early in life have been shown to continue these habits into adulthood compared with those children who have poor eating habits in their younger years. The nutritional intake of many Australian children is not in accordance with the national guidelines. The reasons children make the food choices they do are unclear from the literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This study used participatory action research methods to explore why primary school-aged children make the food choices that they do. A non-government primary school requested assistance in encouraging their children to make healthier choices from the school canteen menu. The authors gathered opinions from the children in two different ways; a group discussion during class and a “discovery day” that involved four class grades. The authors identified children’s food preferences and food availability in canteens. The authors explored how the children perceived healthy foods, the importance of a healthy food environment and what criteria children use to decide what foods to buy. Findings – Children’s food preferences were mostly for unhealthy foods, and these were readily available in the canteen. The perception about what foods were healthy was limited. Despite being asked to develop a “healthy” menu, the majority of choices made by the children were not healthy. Children described unhealthy choices as preferable because of taste of the food, if it was sugary, if it was quick to eat, available and cheap, the relationship of food and weather, the connection to health conditions and peer dominance. Practical implications – This study suggests that children make their food choices based on simple concepts. The challenge lies around producing healthy options in collaboration with the school community that match the children’s food choice criteria. Originality/value – This paper provides a modern and inspiring whole school approach based on equity and empowerment of the children. Discovering why children make food choices from the children’s perspective will help to present healthy options that will be more appealing for children. The methodology used to uncover why children make their food choices has also provided valuable insight into a study design that could be used to address other childhood research questions. The methodology offers an educative experience while gathering rich information directly from the children. This information can be used by the school to support children to have more control over their health and to develop behaviours to increase their health for the rest of their lives.

Creating the Scratch Cooked School Food Framework: Qualitative Data Analysis of a Scratch Cooking Pilot

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483992110389
Author(s):  
Deeana Ijaz Ahmed ◽  
Raynika Trent ◽  
Pamela Koch
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Food System ◽  
System Structure ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
School Food ◽  
Intervention Level ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
School Food Environment

The purpose of this study is to develop a novel framework that outlines the system required to implement scratch cooking in school kitchens. The data used in this study were 57 interviews with key stakeholders during the Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot that occurred in two New York City school kitchens in 2018–2019 and made significant modifications to many aspects of the existing school food system. The guiding framework for the data analysis was Meadows’s Intervention Level Framework. Intervention Level Framework describes analyzing systems by examining five layers: (1) paradigm shift, (2) goals, (3) system structure (4) feedback and delays, and (5) structural elements. It also provides a framework for describing a system by defining its elements, interconnections, and purpose. Data analysis revealed four elements of the school food system: ingredients and recipes, kitchen, cooking, and the community. The interconnections that played a role in each of these elements were policies, practice, people, and promotion. Together, these four elements and four interconnections comprise the Scratch Cooked School Food framework, which has the purpose of being a tool for researchers and practitioners to utilize when planning, implementing, and evaluating scratch cooking in the school food environment.

scholarly journals Policy driven improvement of the school food environment for the Bulgarian first-graders in the period 2008–2016

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (OCE2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesselka Duleva ◽  
Ekaterina Chikova-Ischener ◽  
Lalka Rangelova ◽  
Plamen Dimitrov
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Obesity ◽  
Nutrition Education ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
First Graders ◽  
Healthy Lifestyles ◽  
School Food ◽  
School Food Environment ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Nationally Representative

AbstractIntroduction:The disbalanced school food environment may be a significant factor contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic observed in the last decades worldwide and in Bulgaria. Policy measures targeting to improve the food and beverage availability at the school premises, to include nutrition education in the school curriculum and to implement initiatives aiming to promote a healthy lifestyle among children and their families, all have the potential to help lowering the prevalence of childhood obesity and improve the well-being and health of the children.The aim of the present study is to assess the policy driven improvement of the school food environment for the Bulgarian first-graders within the period 2008–2016.Materials and methods:Three cross-sectional studies among 7-year-old schoolchildren in Bulgaria were carried out on nationally representative samples of about 3500 children selected from the same sample of primary schools in the years 2008, 2013 and 2016 as part of the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). The present study is based on the data collected through questionnaire on the school environment characteristics.Results:Within the nationally representative sample of schools from 2008 to 2016 there is decrease in the percentage of schools with availability at their premises of salty snacks (from 73.7% to 32.3%), sweet snacks (from 76.5% to 49.7%), cold drinks with sugar (from 68.2% to 10.1%) and fruit juices with sugar (from 69.3% to 8.7%), paralleled by increase in the proportion of schools offering vegetables (from 17.9% to 59.8%) and fresh fruits (from 36.9% to 87.4%). Most of the schools have nutrition education as a separate class or included in the curriculum (92.4% of the schools in 2008 and 91.5% in 2016). There is marked increase in the proportion of schools that have initiatives to promote healthy lifestyles (from 42.4% in 2008 to 68.3% in 2016).Discussion:The legislative and policy measures initiated within the period 2008–2016 have led to significant improvement in the profile of foods and drinks available at the school premises, as well as higher involvement of the schools in initiatives promoting healthy lifestyles. These positive changes in the school food environment have probably important role for the trend for plateauing in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among 7-year-old schoolchildren observed within the same study.

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