A school meal is a meal (usually lunch or dinner) provided to students at a school. It is usually served at sometime around noon; however, many also serve breakfast before classes begin in the mornings.
Some schools have theme days whereby food is served in a particular style. For example, the school might serve Chinese cuisine to celebrate the Chinese New Year. There may also be weekly recurring themes, such as "Taco Tuesdays", "Macaroni Mondays," or pizza at the end of the week.
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Canada has no national school meal program,[1][2] and elementary schools are usually not equipped with kitchen facilities. Parents are generally expected to provide a packed lunch for their child to take to school,[3] or have their child return home for the duration of the lunch period. However, some non-profit organizations dedicated to student nutrition programs do exist.[4][5]
Free school dinners in elementary and secondary schools have been served nationwide since October 9, 1948.[6] In some cities poor people were offered free school dinners from the beginning of the 20th century (e.g. from 1902 in Kuopio, extending to all students in 1945).[7]
In Finland also the lunches in Higher Education (universities, polytechnics etc.) are subsidized. The Social Insurance Institution of Finland compensates 1,67 euros per student's daily meal.[8] The meals served are to be as healthy and nutritionally balanced as possible.
Normally, the lunch is prepared like a buffet, where pupils serve themselves as much as they want (mainly potatoes/rice, meat/fish, different kind of soups and vegetables). Bread selection is usually consisted of white bread, rye bread and crisp bread. Milk, buttermilk and water are usually offered as drinks.
Special diets based on religious, cultural or ethical choices or restrictions due to allergies are served with no extra cost.
In France, lunch is considered the most important meal of the day. Students can get lunch at school or go home for lunch. Lunch is one to two hours long. In France, French students are taught to take time to savor and enjoy their meals.[9] Students have to pay for the cafeteria lunch (the cost of the meal differs in different regions). The price of a meal is based on family income and students have to pay for half for the meal, while the school pays for the rest. For example, a typical meal may cost $6, with the family paying $3 instead of the full price.[10]
In the 1970's, the French government begun to take steps to improve school lunch. The government guidelines for French schools dates back to 1971. The 1971 food recommendation guideline stated that each meal should contain raw vegetables (such as salads and fruits), protein in the form of dairy product or milk, cooked vegetables twice per week, and carbohydrates for the remaining days.[10] The 2001 food recommendation guideline, signed by the minister for national education, stated that the school lunches must be healthy and balanced. The guideline stated that there should be very little fat in the menu and meals must contain vitamins and minerals. Menus are posted for parents and the menu varies each day. The main course must contain meat, fish or eggs. Schools must give students a salty soy sauce, which is very similar to Chinese light soy sauce, but usually somewhat thicker and has a stronger flavor; it can be replaced by light Chinese soy sauce in recipes. Mostly, the lunch meals served in France were ricotta lasangna and maccarone and cheese with white cheese sauce. Kecap manis Sweet soy sauce, which has a thick, almost syrupy consistency and a pronounced sweet, treacle-like flavor due to generous additions of palm sugar. It is a unique variety; in a pinch, it may be replaced by molasses with a little vege at least 30 or more minutes before lunch.[9]
The cafeteria serves up five course meals, even for preschoolers.[11] Schoolkids eat the same thing as adults.[12] A school lunch in France contains: an appetizer, salad, main course, cheese plate, and dessert.[11] Bread may be accompanied with each meal. Students eat potato leek soup, carrot and bean salad, lamb with saffron, assortment of cheeses, and grapefruit. Each meal is accompanied with water. French schools do not have vending machines.[13]
See also Mid-day Meal Scheme
Under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), government schools and partially-aided schools, along with Anganwadis, provide mid-day meals to the students attending such institutions, known as the Mid-day Meal Scheme. The meals served are free of cost and meet guidelines that have been set by the policy. The history of the program can be traced to 1925, making it one of the oldest free food programs for school children.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, which demonstrates a public-private partnership in midday meal programme is the world's largest school meal programme run by an NGO. Akshaya Patra started serving 1500 children in the year 2000 and today it serves freshly cooked lunches to over 1.2 million hungry school children in 8 states in India everyday.
A single afternoon lunch usually contains a cereal which is locally available, made in a way acceptable to the prevailing local customs. Vegetables cooked as curry or soups and a portion of milk is allotted for each child. The menu is occasionally varied to appeal to students.
In Japan, 99% of elementary school students and 82% of junior high school students eat kyūshoku, or school lunch.[14] Parents pay 250 to 300 yen per student for the cost of the ingredients, with labour costs being funded by local authorities. The tradition started in the early 20th century. After the war – which brought near-famine conditions to Japan – the provision of school lunches was re-introduced in urban areas, initially with skimmed milk powder and later flour donated by an American charity. School lunch was extended to all elementary schools in Japan in 1952 and, with the enactment of the School Lunch Law, to junior high schools in 1954.
Usually, all meals provided on a given day are identical for all pupils of a Japanese school. The menu is planned by dieticians and changes daily. The average menu has gone through a large deal of change since the basic meals of the 1950s, as Japan grew economically.
School lunches were traditionally based on bread or bread roll, bottled or cartoned milk (introduced from 1958 to replace milk powder), a dessert, and a dish which changed daily. Popular dishes from the early days included inexpensive protein sources, such as stewed bean dishes and fried white fish. Whale meat, another cheap protein, was common until the 1970s. Provisions of rice were introduced in 1976, following a surplus of (government-distributed) Japanese rice, and became increasingly frequent during the 1980s. Hamburg steak, stew and Japanese curry became staples as well. Today, school lunches are a diverse affair, including soup and side dishes. Dishes range from Asian dishes such as naengmyeon, tom yam and ma po tofu to western dishes such as spaghetti, stew and clam chowder.
In 2011, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, radioactive beef was found in school lunches in Kanagawa.[1]
In most schools, foods and drinks are sold in canteens at a variety of stalls. However, needy students can apply for free-food program, usually sponsored by the schools' respective parent-teacher associations, or by the education ministry itself.
School lunches in South Korea include traditional dishes. Rice, soup, and kimchi are served daily.
School dinner has been free in Swedish elementary and secondary schools since 1973. Normally, the lunch is prepared like a buffet, where pupils serve themselves as much as they want (mainly potatoes/rice, meat/fish and vegetables). Milk and water are usually offered as drinks.
School meals in most primary and secondary schools, and junior colleges, are provided in each school's canteen (or tuckshop). The canteens are made up of a number of stalls selling a variety of cuisine as well as beverages. Meals in the school canteens are of a lower price compared to similar meals in public food centres in Singapore.
In the UK, school meals were first introduced in the 1870s to combat the high levels of malnutrition amongst children in poor areas. In 1944 it was made compulsory for local authorities to provide school dinners, with legal nutritional requirements. Free school meals were available to children with families on very low incomes.[15] As a result, staple traditional "school dinner" foods became embedded in the national psyche from the 1950s onwards. "School puddings" in particular refers to desserts traditionally (historically) served with school dinners, in both state schools and private schools. Examples include tarts such as gypsy tart and Manchester tart and hot puddings such as spotted dick and treacle sponge pudding.[16]
In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government ended entitlement to free meals for thousands of children, and obliged local authorities to open up provision of school meals to competitive tender. This was intended to reduce the cost of local-authority-provided school meals, but caused an enormous drop in the standard of food being fed to children. A 1999 survey by the Medical Research Council suggested that despite rationing, children in 1950 had healthier diets than their counterparts in the 1990s, with more nutrients and lower levels of fat and sugar.[17]
This became a major topic of debate in 2004 when chef Jamie Oliver spearheaded a campaign to improve the quality of school meals. School dinners at state schools during this time had normally been made by outside caterers. The schools sold a lot of deep-fried fast-food like chips, fried turkey nuggets, pizza and pies. After the programme was shown on Channel 4 (Jamie's School Dinners), the public showed support for the increase of funding for school meals, causing the government to create the School Food Trust. The topic became a factor in the 2005 UK general election. Some parents opposed Oliver and the move by government to alter children's diets, and scenes of parents passing hot-dogs and hamburgers and chips through school fences was seen.
Some school meal programs existed in the United States at least as far back as 1899, when Principal Arthur Burch of South Division High School in Milwaukee was granted permission to open a lunch room in the building. A basement room 27 by 60 feet was selected for the purpose; a kitchen 10 by 20 feet was partitioned off in one corner; furniture, dishes, etc. were purchased (for $316.65), and Emma Stiles of Chicago was placed in charge, to purchase provisions, plan each day's menu, and to see that all lunches were paid for. The menu was posted on a blackboard in the corridor, with each dish priced at five cents. This was something in the nature of an innovation and other cities made inquiries regarding the success of the scheme. The principal advantage, according to Burch's report to the Superintendent, was derived from serving warm lunches to the students, many of whom came from a distance too great to go home every day for a warm lunch, and who did better work in the afternoons than if they had eaten a cold one.[18]
The National School Lunch Program was created in 1946 when President Truman signed the National School Lunch Act into law. The National School Lunch Program is a federal nutrition assistance program operating in over 101,000 public and non-profit private schools and residential care institutions. Regulated and administered at the federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it currently provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to more than 31 million U.S. children each school day. In its 60-year history, the program has expanded to include the School Breakfast Program, Snack Program, Child and Adult Care Feeding Program and the Summer Food Service Program. At the State level, the National School Lunch Program is usually administered by State education agencies, who operate the program through agreements with school food authorities.
Generally, public or nonprofit private schools of high school grade or under and public or nonprofit private residential child care institutions may or may not participate in the school lunch program. School districts and independent schools that choose to take part in the lunch program get cash minimal subsidies and donated commodities from the USDA for each meal they serve. In return, they must serve lunches that meet Federal requirements, and they must offer free or reduced price lunches to eligible children. School food authorities can also be reimbursed for snacks served to children through age 18 in after-school educational or enrichment programs.
School lunches must meet the applicable recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which state that no more than 30 percent of an individual's calories come from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat. Regulations also establish a standard for school lunches to provide one-third of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories. School lunches must meet Federal nutrition requirements over the course of one week's worth of lunches served, but decisions about what specific foods to serve and how they are prepared are made by local school food authorities. The 2007 School Nutrition and Dietary Assessment III (SNDA III) study based on research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the 2004-2005 school year found that students in more than 90% of schools surveyed had the opportunity to select lunches that were consistent with dietary standards for fat and saturated fat.
School nutrition programs are increasingly using more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean protein and lowfat dairy in school lunches. Efforts such as the Local School Wellness Policies required by the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act have involved parents, students and the school community in efforts to promote healthy eating environments and increased physical activity throughout school campuses.
In 2009, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies released School Meals: Building Blocks For Healthy Children[19] which reviewed and provided recommendations to update the nutrition standard and the meal requirements for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. School Meals also set standards for menu planning that focus on food groups, calories, saturated fat, and sodium and that incorporate Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Reference Intakes.
Unhealthy school lunches are one of the contributors of malnutrition in the form of excessive consumption of unhealthy foods, however, some measures are being taken to change that. Unhealthy adult eating patterns can be traced directly to unhealthy school lunches, as children learn many eating habits from social settings such as school. A 2010 study of 1003 Michigan junior high students found that the students who ate school meals for lunch were significantly more likely to be obese than those who didn't.[20] Promoting healthy eating in schools may reduce as many as 25% of adolescent obesity cases. An example is the Berkeley Food System project which utilizes vegetable gardens to promote education for healthy eating. Janet Brown, who started the project explained that students are more likely to eat healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables if they are better introduced to them.[21] In 2011, a bill was presented to Congress requiring public schools to post calorie and nutritional information on school menu boards. Bill sponsor, Rep. Joseph McNamara called for it to be implemented by January 2013.[22]