“Food is Environmentally and Culturally Specific!”: A Preliminary Qualitative Study on U.S. Immigrant Parents’ Perceptions of School Lunch

Abstract

Children spend most of their day hours in school, so the dietary choices they make during school days are important for their childhood development and later life. This research examined food choices among immigrant families with school-age children in Indiana, USA. Open-ended questions were answered by 52 immigrant parents in 2017. Parents who answered the questions had children in classes ranging from kindergarten to grade 12. NVivo 11 was used for the initial analysis of the dataset, and several themes were identified. After the initial analysis, the data were categorized into major themes to condense the themes. Thirty-eight (73%) of the respondents indicated that their children ate school lunch, 14 (27%) indicated that they prepared lunch for their children to eat at school, and 39 (75%), mostly from non-industrialized countries, indicated that their children ate their home-country staple foods for dinner and on non-school days. Parents indicated that schools are serving the needs of immigrant children by serving varieties of foods during lunchtime.

Parent perceptions of school meals and how perceptions differ by race and ethnicity

“… 21 Similarly, a study evaluating perceptions of school lunches among US immigrant parents found that the convenience of school lunches enabled them to have more time for other important chores at home, and free school meals enabled them to save money for other necessities. 30 Our study finds that the perceived benefits of school meals are similar across racial and ethnic groups, thus highlighting the universal feeling of meal support under a UFSM program.…”

“…Multiple factors could explain these differences, including cultural food norms that favor more fresh whole foods, schools' inability to offer adequate diversity of foods that meet students' racial and ethnic backgrounds, dietary restrictions due to medical needs, differences in the perceptions of immigrant parents about American foods, and disparities in the school food environment, among others. 13 , 30 , 31 , 55 , 56 Prior studies have reported that school meals do not include enough culturally appropriate foods. 30 , 31 One study assessing school breakfast perceptions among diverse immigrant families found that, when schools did not offer enough culturally appropriate hot foods, students were less likely to participate.…”

“… 19 , 20 , 24-28 Moreover, with the growth of the multiracial population in the United States 29 and the adoption of UFSM policies, it is important for school meals to meet students' cultural preferences to make school meal programs more inclusive, to increase student participation, and to improve nutrition security for all students. While several studies have shown that immigrant parents report that school meals do not include enough culturally appropriate foods, 30 , 31 little is known about how parent perceptions of school meals differ by race and ethnicity. One study that examined the relationship between race and ethnicity and parent perceptions of school meals found that parents of Black children were significantly more likely to positively assess the healthfulness of the school food environment compared with parents of White children.…”

Race/Ethnicity Predicts School Meal Participation

“…We also saw no significant associations between other acculturation variables and school meal participation, thus suggesting that school meal participation may not be influenced by acculturation the same way other obesogenic behaviors are. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] In a qualitative study done within immigrant parents, participants explained that their children often do not want to bring foods from home so they could be seen as ''mainstream'' and avoiding having their food ''made fun of'' 37 This may explain why there were little differences between school meal participation and acculturation variables.…”

Yonder: Advanced practice physiotherapists, vaccination, dehydration, and school lunches

“…Given that immigrants to the US are known to face challenges in their dietary habits on their arrival to the country, and the fact that these are linked to obesity and chronic disease, a research team in Indiana recently examined food choices among immigrant families with school-age children. 4 The 52 parents who took part in the study had children in classes ranging from kindergarten to grade 12. They felt that schools were generally serving the needs of immigrant children by serving varieties of foods during lunchtime.…”