Az iskolai gyermekétkeztetés interdiszciplináris kutatásának lehetőségei

Abstract

In Hungary around half of the 3–18 years old age group has regularly used school food service. This paper focuses on the operation and social embeddedness of school canteens and the at-home eating habits of the families involved. The sources I have used are the findings of my interdisciplinary research group. Ethnographers from RCH Institute of Ethnology and dieticians from the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition has been studying the school food from 2018 to 2023. We selected a few model settlements: in addition to the capital, Budapest, three smaller towns and two villages. Through questionnaires, interviews, and fieldwork observations we investigated cooking, serving, meal courses, meal-time, eating habits, preferences, as well as nutritional knowledge of students, teachers, kitchen staff, and parents. Our goal, among other things, is to collect best practices, to facilitate communication between the participants. Some examples from our research highlight the special role of the centrally regulated school food in thelocal food culture, and difficulties with social, historical roots which on occasion hamper school lunch to become a socially accepted model of a healthy diet. The school canteen works best at places where cooking takes place in the school building. There is a strong connection between the kitchen staff and the teachers, and they work together in the interest of the children. The value of food and how much it is appreciated is shown by how it is treated and how it is talked about. Communication about food in the canteen should be based on food preparation at home, where parents and children work together. The operation of canteens has become particularly problem-atic following the measures introduced due to the coronavirus epidemic. A sustainable, enjoyable canteen can only be realized through the regular communication of schools and school kitchens, as well as children and their parents. Our results are presented to our respondents, also providing them with a comparison of different examples.