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Nutrients
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The Influence of School Meals on Children and Adolescents
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The Influence of School Meals on Children and Adolescents

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2025 | Viewed by 1695

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Nobuko Murayama

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Health and Nutrition, Faculty of Human Life Studies, University of Niigata Prefecture, 471 Ebigase, Higashi-ku, Niigata 950-8680, Japan
Interests: nutrition dispality; food environment; school meals; nuttrition policy; global nutrition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

School meals play an important role in ensuring nutrition and food security for children during their growth period. School meals were provided in at least 125 countries around the world in 2021, and this covered many of the children and students in elementary and junior high schools in those countries. Furthermore, because they are provided to children as a meal on a daily basis, they are one of the most powerful nutrition policies.

The effects of school meals are wide-ranging, including improvements and equity of healthy growth/nutrition, improvements in eating habits/nutritional knowledge/attitudes to food, improvements in school attendance rates/academic performance, support for family finances, the development of local agriculture and economics, and reducing national healthcare costs both now and in the future.

Our Special Issue aims to discuss the various effects of school lunches. In particular, we expect the papers that quantitatively measure or predict the effects of school meals on children and students or on the local environment. We invite interested researchers to submit original research and review articles relating to this topic.

Prof. Dr. Nobuko Murayama
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • school meals
  • health outcomes
  • nutritional outcomes
  • educational outcomes
  • economic outcomes
  • equity
 

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 857 KiB  
Article
Enhancing Vietnamese Students’ Acceptance of School Lunches Through Food Combination: A Cross-Over Study
by An Thanh Truong, Anh Thi Lan Pham, Thy Quynh Nguyen, Tan Duy Doan, Tuan Nhat Pham, Yen Thi Hai Hoang, Ryosuke Matsuoka and Shigeru Yamamoto
Nutrients 2025, 17(8), 1385; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17081385 - 20 Apr 2025
Viewed by 360
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Vegetable leftovers constitute more than half of Vietnamese school lunch waste, partly due to limited ingredient variety, which may reduce meal acceptance. Methods: This cross-over study assessed the impact of diversifying vegetable options on intake and satisfaction among 40 students at a [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Vegetable leftovers constitute more than half of Vietnamese school lunch waste, partly due to limited ingredient variety, which may reduce meal acceptance. Methods: This cross-over study assessed the impact of diversifying vegetable options on intake and satisfaction among 40 students at a suburban Vietnamese primary school. Five new menus were developed by redistributing a 100 g vegetable portion into smaller servings of multiple vegetable types, combining them creatively with protein-rich foods or rice while maintaining nutritional value and cost. Students alternated between current and new menus over four weeks. Sensory evaluations using a 5-point hedonic scale and food weighing were conducted daily. Results: Most students increased vegetable intake during the new menu period. Mean intake was significantly higher with new menus (81.5 g; 95%CI: 77.1–85.9) compared to current menus (71.1 g; 95%CI: 65.2–75.1) (p < 0.001). Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that enhancing vegetable variety in combination can significantly improve intake and sensory characteristics without additional costs. This scalable strategy offers a practical solution for schools to foster healthier eating habits among students. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Influence of School Meals on Children and Adolescents)
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14 pages, 1482 KiB  
Article
A Pilot Evaluation of a School-Based Nutrition Education Program with Provision of Fruits and Vegetables to Improve Consumption Among School-Age Children in Palau
by Shu-Fen Liao, Hsu-Min Tseng, Jong-Dar Chen, Chiao-Ming Chen and Sing-Chung Li
Nutrients 2025, 17(6), 994; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17060994 - 12 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1016
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Children spend the most time in school, which can be a friendly environment that encourages students to eat healthy foods, so school is a good place to learn and practice these behaviors. In Palau, public schools offer free lunches to students. [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Children spend the most time in school, which can be a friendly environment that encourages students to eat healthy foods, so school is a good place to learn and practice these behaviors. In Palau, public schools offer free lunches to students. Based on the constructs of Social Cognitive Theory, we conducted a pilot study to evaluate the effects of a school nutrition education program (NE) and the provision of more fruits and vegetables (FV) in school lunches on elementary school students’ nutrition knowledge, as well as their attitudes and behaviors regarding fruit and vegetable consumption. Methods: A public elementary school participated in our trial from February to May 2017. While all students (ages 5–12) at the school were provided with free meals through the National School Meal program, only students in grades 4–8 were invited to participate in a four-month nutrition education program and taste-testing activities, during which more fresh fruits and vegetables were incorporated into the school lunches. Participants filled out questionnaires before and after the trial. Results: Our results showed that students in grades 4–8 (n = 92) had improved scores in all nutrition knowledge items after completing the nutrition education course compared to before the course. Among these, the food category, food servings, and total scores showed statistically significant differences. The scores for attitudes and behaviors regarding FVs intake showed an increasing trend after the completion of the course. Further, the age-based analysis revealed that fifth-grade students showed the greatest improvement in their nutrition knowledge scores, with an increase of 38.5%. However, after adjusting for gender, the significance was no longer observed. Regarding attitude and behavior scores toward fruit and vegetable consumption, fourth-grade students showed the greatest improvement, with increases of 10.9% and 6.3%, respectively. Additionally, we tracked the total amount of FVs consumed by the school annually, noting a consistent rise from 1853 pounds in 2017 to 6580 pounds in 2021, a 3.5-fold increase. Conclusions: This pilot study showed that school nutrition education and providing more fresh fruits and vegetables (FVs) can significantly improve children’s nutrition knowledge, while there was only a slight upward trend in attitudes and behaviors toward FV consumption. However, regularly offering nutrition education courses combined with providing more fruits and vegetables in school lunches could effectively increase children’s consumption of these healthy foods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Influence of School Meals on Children and Adolescents)
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