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

Issue Addressed

This paper aims to explore Victoria parents' perceptions of their current practices and barriers in providing school lunches for their primary school children.

Methods

Respondents 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.

Results

In 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.

Conclusions

Overall, 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.