Scoping study investigating stakeholder perceptions and use of school canteens in an Australian city

Abstract

Despite the intense focus on school canteens to sell healthy food, little has changed in terms of student's food choices and the barriers to providing healthy options. The external environment and divided parental buy-in impact the canteen's ability to comply with guidelines. A holistic approach involving all stakeholder levels is required to successfully achieve a healthy school canteen environment and positively influence student's food habits and choices.

Adolescent food environment and wellbeing: understanding attitudes and food choice predictors in different learning environments

“…This is in concordance with Lawlis et al (2017) and Gangemi et al (2018) findings that the most commonly purchased canteen food items are from the Red and/or Amber category.…”

“…Participating schools were selling between 20 and 27% menu items that are categorised as Red (unhealthy) and only between 21 and 28% Green (healthy) food items according to the Queensland Health and Education (2016) Smart Choices Strategy. The majority of food items available (49-53%) in participating school canteens were from the Amber category at all three schools; this finding is consistent with other Australian studies (Lawlis et al 2017). These are foods that are colloquially known as "sometimes foods" and should only be offered certain days of the week and in small serving sizes.…”

“…As a result, it has been proposed that foods at schools should consist solely of healthy products (i.e., fruits, whole grains, vegetables and low-fat/non-fat dairy) to support adolescents develop healthy eating habits (Story et al 2008). This would be extremely challenging given that school canteen menu's, regardless of the National Healthy School Canteen Guidelines, currently do not comply with the recommended >50% Green categorised foods (Lawlis et al 2017). Furthermore this may not be enough, given that students have suggested the following strategies for improving healthful eating:…”

“…This highlights "the importance of schools as models of healthy environments and the unique opportunity provided to schools to expose children to healthy behaviour" (Hesketh et al 2005, p. 25). Children and adolescents eat up to two meals and snacks at schools every day (consuming between one third to one half of their daily total energy intake from outside the home), and are therefore identified as having a large effect on adolescents' dietary intake and habits (Story et al 2008;Watts et al 2015;Lawlis et al 2017;Gangemi et al 2018). It can be argued that young people have limited control over their foodscape and are therefore are strongly influenced by the foodscape in which they spend the majority of their time i.e., at home, school and the wider community (Glanz et al 2005;Johansson et al 2009;Ding et al 2012).…”

Bridging the gap in paediatric nutrition: Dietetic practice research to improve knowledge translation

“…Lawlis et al . 2017 investigated stakeholder—school principal and parent—perceptions and use of school canteens. Canteen managers were identified as a key stakeholder, but no school managers participated in this research despite being approached.…”