California Middle and High School Students Report Wanting Fresh and Healthy School Lunch in the Context of Universal School Meals.

Objective: To evaluate students' perceptions of school lunches served when they were offered free of charge to all students.

Design: Cross-sectional qualitative study using focus groups.

Setting: California students interviewed virtually.

Participants: Middle school (n = 36) and high school (n = 31) students from a racially and economically diverse sample.

Main outcome measure: Students' perceptions of school lunch.

Analysis: Thematic analysis using immersion-crystallization methodology.

Results: Students desire fresh and healthy school lunches. Students defined fresh as food prepared on-site, from scratch, and not prepackaged or frozen, and healthy as food that contains fruits and vegetables. Many students perceived the main entrees to be the least healthy and fresh part of school lunch and fruits and vegetables to be the most healthy and fresh; however, some students reported the fruits and vegetables were not always fresh or palatable.

Conclusions and implications: Students value fresh and healthy free school lunches, but they have somewhat limited definitions of what constitutes healthy. Schools can better meet student preferences for fresh and healthy foods to ensure that meals served free of charge are nourishing and palatable to all students while improving nutrition education such that students understand the components of a healthy meal.