Children's food meanings and eating contexts: schools and their surroundings

Abstract

Purpose – Concerns on children's obesity and overweight have been related to food diets with excessive sugar and fat. Given the relevance of school meals in Portuguese children's lives, schools follow governmental guidelines in order to provide nutritiously balanced and healthy meals. As imbalances persist, this study aims at understanding the acceptance of school meals by children, in the context of competing marketing allures of nutritiously poor foods outside the schools. Design/methodology/approach – Plural qualitative research techniques (focus groups with children and parents, direct observation and interviews with school directors and kitchen staff) were combined to analyse children's food-related meanings and practices, and also images of food displayed at schools and in their surroundings. The empirical data were collected in four primary and secondary public schools with different socio-economic backgrounds in the area of Lisbon. Findings – Results show sharp contrasts between food images and meanings at school canteens and commercial food outlets outside schools. Data suggest that subjection to supervision, unappetizing school meals and images in the canteens stand out against favourite flavours and social levers (such as autonomy and status) of food available outside school. Research limitations/implications – This study has an exploratory nature and results are not-generalizable to other schools of the country. Originality/value – Limited attention has been paid to competing social contexts of children's food consumption at schools and their surroundings in Portugal. Research results can bring insights to conceptual development on school meals and children's food practices.

Institutional spaces and sociable eating: young people, food and expressions of care

“…Catering staff and senior management teams are variously charged with managing lunch queues, preparing food, ensuring seating turnover, behaviour management, cleaning up and generally managing often limited space and resources. As such, a tension between staff responsibilities and student desires undergirds the school canteen foodscape, demonstrating competing interests between, as Daniel and Gustafsson write, "institutional constraints and children's agency" (p270) (see also Horta, Truninger et al 2013). Truninger and Teixeira (2015) examine the concept of 'care' as being 'professionalized' in school food provision, where policies instituted in many schools have focused on aspects such as portion size, energy, nutrition density and cooking methods that privilege a rational understanding of food and health by students, thus "marginalizing their bodies, and the visceral effects of food intake" (p195).…”

“…However, our research underlined an issue faced by many schools: the impact of large student populations and overcrowded canteens on sociable eating. Other studies have examined noisy canteens, overcrowding, limited seating, and students feeling hurried to eat as barriers to the sociable eating experience that students seek during lunchtimes (Daniel and Gustafsson 2010;Horta 2013). While staff demonstrate a commitment to the importance of students developing social skills, they are also responsible for managing large number of students with often limited resources within schools, introducing competing interests for staff and students over the facilitation of sociable eating at break times.…”

A Critical Evaluation of the Impact of Religion on Collectivist Families’ Meal Social Interaction Behaviour in Sierra Leone.

“…Sierra Leoneans are surrounded by lots of religious practices such as making sacrifices for ancestral spirits, God's influence of everything in their daily lives and livelihoods, and prayers, which affects their food consumption behaviour as it conveys meaning that are significant to them and which are interpreted based on their understanding. This view was supported by Horta et al (2013); Judd et al (2014); and De Backer et al (2015), who stated that food tastes are shaped by family religious norms and socialisation processes, emphasising that natural tastes are founded on social constructions which have been elaborated over generations. ; Beagan et al (2014); and Delaney and McCarthy (2014), on the other hand, attributed food taste of working class individuals to -a taste of necessity'', arising from the lack of choice and enjoyment of the sensation of feeling full.…”

Socioeconomic Differences and the Potential Role of Tribes in Young People’s Food and Drink Purchasing Outside School at Lunchtime

“…For young people, food consumption is influenced by a combination of environmental, individual, and social aspects [11]. Previous studies have linked young people’s less healthy food practices to peer influence (e.g., [11,12,13,14,15,16]). In addition, marketing communication techniques can influence the way young people form a social identity and sense of belonging by influencing their purchasing behaviors [17,18].…”