Enough time for lunch? The duration and governance of lunch eating times in Australian primary schools: A mixed-methods study

Burton, Melissa; Wood, Julie Maree; Booth, Alison; Worsley, Anthony; Larsson, Christel; Margerison, Claire

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2021.105817

Cited by 10 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…non-standard food (Prescott et al, 2019), the presence of alternative foods (Falasconi et al, 2015) or special diets in schools (Eriksson et al, 2017). Food leftovers could be reduced by providing enough time to eat (Kodors et al, 2022;Painter, Thondhlana, & Kua, 2016), as the amount of food waste is affected by the duration of lunch, a sense of urgency and a lack of time to eat (Burton et al, 2022;Painter, Thondhlana, & Kua, 2016;Qian et al, 2021;Silvennoinen, Nisonen, & Pietiläinen, 2019). Several research studies emphasized the role of a lunch supervisor as crucial, as a lack of control over food leftovers made by schoolchildren is a major source of food waste (Derqui & Fernandez, 2017;Martins et al, 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of factors affecting zero-waste food consumption in schools

Deksne¹,

Litavniece²,

Zvaigzne³

et al. 2022

Research for Rural Development

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The research aims to identify the factors affecting food waste and waste generation in schools and, consequently, barriers to zero-waste food consumption based on a systematic review of literature for the period 2015-2022. The research employed qualitative methods: systematic literature review, analysis and synthesis, as well as the monographic method. The literature review examined 1702 research papers and the abstracts. Using a PRISMA 2020 flow diagram, 54 papers were selected from the ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar databases for an in-depth analysis. Based on the literature review, 8 groups of factors that affected the generation of food waste in schools in the consumption process were identified: demographical, political, school food policy, environmental, socio-economic, personal/human, physical/human and geographical. The factors identified and aggregated might provide a basis for further discussions on zero-waste food consumption and food waste reduction in schools, as well as specific actions to optimize school food consumption and promote effective food and food waste management.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of factors affecting zero-waste food consumption in schools

Deksne¹,

Litavniece²,

Zvaigzne³

et al. 2022

Research for Rural Development

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“…, 2017) could address some of these issues and provide a variety of healthy hot meals to school children, similar to meals parents in this study reported doing during the remote learning period. Otherwise, provision of more time to eat (usually just 10 min is provided in Australian primary schools (Burton et al. , 2021)), and provision of facilities at schools to heat or reheat cooked meals, similar to those experienced during the remote learning period, may also assist.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…School meals programs (such as those offered in the UK and USA) (Cohen et al, 2021;Lucas et al, 2017) could address some of these issues and provide a variety of healthy hot meals to school children, similar to meals parents in this study reported doing during the remote learning period. Otherwise, provision of more time to eat (usually just 10 min is provided in Australian primary schools (Burton et al, 2021)), and provision of facilities at schools to heat or reheat cooked meals, similar to those experienced during the remote learning period, may also assist. Exploration of parents' and students' opinions of how and what they would like to have for school lunch would add to the ongoing debate on the importance of improving lunch practices in Australian schools.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 2020) and improve their food literacy by transferring food-related knowledge and skills. Moreover, this new learning environment may have created an opportunity for children to experience more relaxed and longer breaks and eating episodes than they would normally experience during a typical school day (Burton et al. , 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was hypothesised that these public health safety measures including lockdowns, may have provided an opportunity for parents to observe and interact more with their children in relation to food (Aureus, 2020;Bracale and Vaccaro, 2020;Vuorikari et al, 2020) and improve their food literacy by transferring food-related knowledge and skills. Moreover, this new learning environment may have created an opportunity for children to experience more relaxed and longer breaks and eating episodes than they would normally experience during a typical school day (Burton et al, 2021). Thus, this study aimed to explore parents' perceptions of their involvement and enjoyment in food-related interactions with their children during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns/restrictions in Australia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Australian parents' and children's food-related interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Nanayakkara

Boddy

Aydın

et al. 2022

BFJ

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PurposeDuring the COVID-19 pandemic people worldwide in the same household spent more time together and school children engaged in remote learning throughout extended lockdowns and restrictions. The present study aimed to explore parents' perceptions of their involvement and enjoyment in food-related interactions with their children during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated lockdowns/restrictions and changes in their children's food intake, especially children's lunches during the remote learning period.Design/methodology/approachData from parents (n = 136) were collected via an online survey in 2020. Parents' responses to closed-ended questions were analysed via descriptive statistics and open-ended responses were analysed thematically.FindingsMost parents (62%) reported that they interacted more with their school-aged (5–17 years) children about food during COVID-19 compared to pre-pandemic times. These interactions included cooking, menu planning, eating, conversations around food, and gardening. Most parents (74%) prepared meals with their children during the pandemic and most of them (89%) reported that they enjoyed it. Most parents (n = 91 out of 121) perceived that their children's lunches during remote learning were different to when attending school in person and these changes included eating hot and home-cooked food and more elaborate meals.Originality/valueThis study sheds important insights into a sample of Australian parents' food-related interactions with their school-aged children during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns and parents' observations and perceptions of changes in the children's food intake during the remote learning period.

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Parents face several barriers in providing a healthy school lunch for their primary school children: A survey of Victorian (Australian) parents

Nanayakkara,

Margerison,

Booth

et al. 2024

Health Prom J of Aust

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Issue AddressedThis paper aims to explore Victoria parents' perceptions of their current practices and barriers in providing school lunches for their primary school children.MethodsRespondents were asked via an online survey about their lunch provision practices, perceptions of the healthiness of school lunches, and barriers to providing healthy school lunches. Data were analysed using different statistical techniques: Chi‐square test, Spearman correlation analysis, Mann–Whitney U test, and Kruskal–Wallis test.ResultsIn total, 359 respondents completed the survey. Most respondents (84%) reported their child takes a home‐packed lunch to school every day. Most respondents provided fruits (94%), vegetables (57%), and sandwiches (54%) every day for school lunches, whilst other core food items such as milk, meats, and legumes were provided less frequently. A substantial proportion of respondents provided some discretionary food items frequently (e.g., the proportion of respondents providing selected discretionary food items daily or 3–4 times/week: salty crackers—50%, sweet cookies/biscuits—40%, chips—20%). Respondents strongly agreed or agreed with several barriers; examples include not packing certain foods due to food spoilage concerns (50%) (school‐related), the allocated time at their child's school is not enough to eat and enjoy school lunch (48%) (school‐related), need more meal ideas (61%) (parent‐related), healthy foods take more time to prepare (51%) (parent‐related), and children request easy‐to‐eat food for school lunches (50%) (child‐related). Core food score (an indicator of frequency of preparing/packing core food) was negatively correlated with parent‐related and child‐related barrier scores, whilst discretionary food score (an indicator of frequency of preparing/packing discretionary food) was positively correlated with these barrier scores.ConclusionsOverall, home‐packed lunches remain the main option in primary schools in Victoria, and parents face several challenges in providing healthy lunches for their primary school children.So What?The findings suggest the need for strategies from school leaders, education authorities, and policymakers to improve the quality of lunch content and address the barriers faced by parents.

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Enough time for lunch? The duration and governance of lunch eating times in Australian primary schools: A mixed-methods study

Cited by 10 publications

References 66 publications

Analysis of factors affecting zero-waste food consumption in schools

Analysis of factors affecting zero-waste food consumption in schools

Australian parents' and children's food-related interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Parents face several barriers in providing a healthy school lunch for their primary school children: A survey of Victorian (Australian) parents

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