Pupils‘ perception of their school meals

Peer reviewed / Manuscript (original) submitted: 19. November 2021 / Revision accepted:12. April 2022

Results from focus group interviews in secondary schools

Introduction

What characterizes school catering that is judged to be "successful" by various stakeholders as well as by the students? This was the central question of the staff of the networking offices for school catering (Vernetzungsstellen Schulverpflegung [VNS]) in the five northern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. In a four-year INFORM project, they identified and systematized the conditions for success from the perspective of different stakeholder groups and the people who receive the meals. Special attention was paid to determine the original view of students on school meals, which has rarely been captured in previous publications on the topic [5, 6]. To this end, focus group interviews with students were conducted and analyzed.

The research guiding questions were: What characterizes successful school catering from the students' point of view? What do students expect from their school meals? Which general conditions and quality features of school meals lead to a successful offer from their point of view? How do they see their own role? This article summarizes the results of this qualitative study and shows how differentiated the students' view of school catering is, how they comment on it and, not least, it shows their motivation to participate in school catering. ...

Abstract

Adolescent students do not participate in school catering to the extent that would be desirable from a social and health policy perspective in the context of all-day schooling [1–4]. To know more about the the background and derive opportunities for improvement, students in schools with comparatively high satisfaction with school meals were surveyed in qualitative focus group interviews. We describe the characteristics and conditions of successful school catering from the students' point of view, the needs of secondary school students with regard to their lunchtime meals, and what expectations they have of the school catering system and of those responsible for catering. We also describe pupils´ expectations of themselves and their fellow students.

Keywords: school catering, focus group interview, expectations, needs, pupils' perspective, school canteen, communal catering

Full text PDF (free version)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode