title: Are school meals a viable and sustainable tool to improve the healthiness and sustainability of children´s diet and food consumption? A cross-national comparative perspective.
abstract: There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest for improving public diet because they reach children at a population scale across socio-economic classes and for over a decade of their lives, and because food habits of children are more malleable than those of adults. Current research on the history and health implications of school meal programs is reviewed in a cross-national comparative framework, and arguments explored that speak for the need of a new developmental phase of school meals as an integrative learning platform for healthy and sustainable food behavior. Nutritional, social, practical, educational, economical, political, and cultural perspectives and challenges linked to the implementation of healthy and sustainable school meals are discussed. Finally, the need for long-term interventions and evaluations is highlighted and new research directions are proposed.
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Sciences , Norwegian University of Life Sciences , Ås , Norway.
authors.forename: Marije
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0997-0041
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oostindjer
authors.affiliation: b MAPP Centre - Research on Value Creation in the Food Sector , Aarhus University , Aarhus C , Denmark.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aschemann-Witzel
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Sciences , Norwegian University of Life Sciences , Ås , Norway.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: c Consumption Research Norway , Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences , Oslo , Norway.
authors.forename: Silje Elisabeth
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Skuland
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Sciences , Norwegian University of Life Sciences , Ås , Norway.
authors.forename: Bjørg
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Egelandsdal
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Sciences , Norwegian University of Life Sciences , Ås , Norway.|d School of Life Science , Arizona State University , Tempe , Arizona , USA.
authors.forename: Gro V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Amdam
authors.affiliation: c Consumption Research Norway , Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences , Oslo , Norway.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schjøll
authors.affiliation: e Department of Sociology, Computational Social Science Institute , University of Massachusetts Amherst , Amherst , Massachusetts , USA.
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Pachucki
authors.affiliation: f Department of Psychology , University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rozin
authors.affiliation: g Netter Center for Community Partnerships , University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA.
authors.forename: Jarrett
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: h Nofima AS , Ås , Norway.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lengard Almli
authors.affiliation: i Marketing and Consumer Behavior Group , Wageningen University , Hollandseweg , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Van Kleef
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D004032:Diet / Q000592:standards*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005522:Food Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D062407:Meals; D012574:Schools
keywords: School meals; children; food behavior; health; learning; sustainability