SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAMME IN OTHER COUNTRIES
The origin and development of school lunch programmes In different countries reveal the universal concern all over the world for the welfare of growing children. The need for school lunch programme as part of a sound educational system has been realised in most countries.
In many parts of the world the school lunch programmes have been organised for two reasons: distance of home from school and financial circumstances of the parents. In a few cases the purpose of improving the nutrition of children is also evident. Some countries have school feeding programmes on a nation wide scale, while others have them confined to certain areas or localities owing to financial limitations.
In the following pages the status of school lunch in some Asian and other countries are reviewed.
1. Australia The nutrition level of the Australian people in general is high. Therefore it has not been thought necessary to introduce government funded free school lunches. There is no free school food service in Australia. But inexpensive lunches are supplied through school tuck- shops (canteens). The state schools incorporate and pay for the design and building of these tuck-shops when new schools are erected. The only financial contribution to school feeding programme by the Australian Government other than building tuck-shops in state schools, it is the free milk scheme. The States Grant Act of 1950, aims at supplementing the diet of all school children under 13 years of age with one third of a pint of milk daily. The cost of the milk, and half the capital and the incidental expenses are reimbursed by the Federal government to the states.
2. Brazil The undernourished children in Brazil were provided with school meals before the Second World War by philanthropic and women's organisations. School funds also played a part in the
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development of the programme. In 1946, ten per cent of the children attending school were receiving meals which provided 350 to 400 calories each. From 1950, UNICEF started supplying milk powder. Approximately three million children receive milk enriched with flour through the national services.
3. Bulgaria The school feeding programme in Bulgaria was started after the Second War, through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Social Welfare and the UNICEF. The children were chosen according to their economic and health status. More than 500,000 children participate in the feeding programme.
4. China In China, most school children and teachers bring their lunches to school. In 1957, it was found that some of the children in mountain areas either brought no lunch or brought very little food. A pilot school lunch project was initiated in five mountain schools. Since then, the project has been gradually extended to schools in the salt, fishing, mining and rural areas. During the initial period (1957-64) donations of wheat flour and milk powder were received from external welfare foundations. From 1964 to 1969, non-fat milk powder, wheat flour, bulgar wheat and vegetable ail were provided by the USAID under the United States Public Law 480. Between 1969-72 similar food aid was given by the World Food Programme. At present the number of children covered under the school lunch programme is 229,784 which is 11.1 per cent of the total number of school going children. In schools without lunch programmes, the pupils bring their own lunch boxes and the schools provide facilities to steam the food. In some schools, hot soup is also provided. In schools offering the lunch programme a hot lunch is provided. The meal usually consists of baked or steamed bread (145 g), soup and one dish of meat, fish, egg, soybeans or peanuts cooked with vegetables.
The average nutrient content per meal is 820 calories, 30 g protein, 18 g fat, 200 mg calcium, 280 mg phosphorus, 5 mg iron and 1800 I.U. vitamin A. The cost to each student per day is 15 to 20 US cents. The neediest 10 per cent of all the pupils are provided free lunch, through the government funds.
5. England The school lunch programme was developed rapidly in England in the 1900's. Anxiety about the national physique was
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the motive to develop the school feeding programmes in England. The first 'School Meals Act' was passed in 1906. Most of the meals were provided by voluntary schemes supported by the government. They were simple, consisting of porridges or gruel, bread, jam and a little milk. Since 1940, the provision of meals increased rapidly. The lunches consisted of boiled vegetables, salad, steak and pudding.
Before the Second World War approximately 250,000 meals were served a day. By October, 1942 one million children (19 per cent of pupils) had their dinner at school. In 1943, the government called for an accelerated programme of expansion with a target of providing for 75 per cent of children attending grant-aided schools. By 1945, nearly two million dinners (1,832,000) were provided daily to 39.6 per cent of pupils.
In 1941, after an appeal for better allowances, the Ministry of Food asked the Board of Education's technical officers to draw up a diet which they considered satisfactory for children. This was done and a diet was planned to provide an energy value of 1.000 kilocalories, 20 to 25 g of animal protein, 30 g of fat, 2450 I.U. vitamin A, 230 I.U. vitamin B, 54 mg vitamin C, 5.7 mg available iron, and 425 mg calcium. So was born the concept of nutritional standard for the school meal, a concept which has held good until the present day, although it is now being questioned. The midday meal was considered to be the main meal of the day for nearly all children and it was considered that most of the necessary animal protein and of the fat must be obtained in this meal.
Until 1945, legislation giving local authorities power to provide school meals had been permissive; in 1945, it became a compulsory duty. The Provision of Milk and Meals Regulation 1945 required that midday dinners adequate in quantity and quality so as to be suitable as the main meal of the day for the pupil, well prepared and cooked, and served decently and in good condition should be provided on all school days for pupils. The regulations also gave local authorities power to require teachers to supervise pupils at dinner. This later became a great bone of contention.
The years 1945 to 1965 were a time of consolidation and expansion during which standards readily rose. To all outward appearances the service was firmly consolidated into education departments and into the life of the schools. As early as 1914, the central government gave the authorities a 50 per cent grant for school feeding, and when it was decided during the war to
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expand the service as quickly as possible, the grant was increased to about 80 per cent. The government also pays all the capital costs for equipment and buildings. From 1979, the government is paying all the operating costs as well as the capital costs subject to certain safeguards. It is an extremely interesting feature of the relationship between central government and local government that the latter is allowed to carry out this large and complicated catering service at the entire expense of the central government funds.
The school meals service is administered at the Central Office in London by the special services branch, which is also responsible for school milk and the school medical services. There is a Staff Inspector of School Meals, who with 14 expert colleagues. is responsible for inspecting the arrangements made by the local education authorities. In addition, all of this Majesty's Inspectors of Schools take a keen interest in the service from the educational angle.
In the countries and towns each local education authority is required to employ an organiser of school meals, holding high qualifications and possessing good experience. Under the chief education officer the organiser is the responsible technical officer of the service. The duties are numerous and include planning the development of the system, the appointment and training of canteen staff, the purchase of food, and menu making.
In 1967, the separate grant for school meals, which had remained at 100 per cent since 1947, was abolished. At the same time the rate support grant was introduced.
In 1968, the Provision of Meals and Milk Regulations were amended to remove the statutory duty of teachers to supervise meals. As a result teachers withdrew from this duty in considerable numbers. In 1969, the Provision of Milk and Meals Regulations 1945 were revoked and replaced by much briefer ones which no longer used the term 'school meals service'. Prescribed nutritional standards continue to be a feature of education catering but somewhere along the time, the practice of monitoring these by the Department of Education and Science has been quietly dropped. The school meals service no longer seems to be in tune with the times.
In the financial year 1976-77, the price of a school meal was 15 p, and the gross running cost per meal was three times as much, 45.3 p. The cost of food, however, accounted for only one third of this cost; salaries and wages accounted for 55 per cent
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The gross expenditure on school meals in 1978-79 was _ 617 million (at 1978 survey prices) and the income from charges was _ 202 million- making the net expenditure _415 million. Nearly half of this net expenditure went on providing free meals. The remainder (_ 225 million) represents the subsidy given to school meals that are paid for. It is most, or all, of this subsidy that would be removed under the government's plans. The school meals statistics is given in Table III.
TABLE III
Summary of School Meals Statistics (England) from a Census Taken
on a Day in Autumn, Spring and Summer Terms in 1977-78
Number in millions
Details May. 77 Oct. 77 Jan. 78 May. 78 Oct. 78
Pupils attending 7.983 7.878 7.720 7.825 7.729
Paid meals as 4.565 3.929 3.865 3.722 4.022
percentage of (57.2) (49.9) (50.1) (47.6) (52.0)
attendance
Free meals as 0.821 0.927 1.094 1.151 1.074
Percentage of (10.3) (11.8) (14.2) (14.7) (13.9)
attendance
Total meals as 5.386 4.855 4.960 4.873 5.096
percentage of (67.5) (61.7) (64.3) (62.3) (65.9)
attendance
6. Fiji In most Fiji schools, children bring packed lunches or go home for lunch or buy meals at schools. The meals in the schools are generally prepared by the mothers in the Mother's Club. Meals are sold at as low a price as possible. The menu is prepared with consideration given to variety and nutritive values of food.
7. France The credit of starting the first school meal programme in the world in the year 1865, goes to a Frenchman, Victor Hugo. The meals were provided both on free and payment basis. In 1868, it was enacted that all the Communes in France should establish
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School Fund Committees to provide meals for the poor and needy children. After the war in 1945, the number of school feeding canteens increased from 8,000 to 10,900, through which 14 per cent of the school going children numbering 8,12,000 were receiving midday meals. These children were selected according to income. The lunch time was planned to be pleasant and conducive to learning good manners. A typical lunch provided 1,000 to 1,200 calories. It consisted of a large bowl of vegetable soup. fish, meat or eggs, or a combination of these to provide 18 to 20 grams of animal protein, simple desert (often a fruit) cheese and milk.
8. Greece The school lunch programme in Greece was started before the Second World War. After the war, the International Relief Agencies, UNICEF and UNRRA* assisted the programme. In 1950, the "School Breakfast Programme" was developed by the Ministry of Education as a public health measure to correct the deficiencies which were prevalent among the school population. The school meal consisted of a cup of milk, cocoa, and a slice of raisin-milk bread, providing about 550 calories. The children are selected on the basis of health and economic status.
9. Hong Kong School meals are not provided in the majority of schools in Hongkong because many schools in Hongkong are bisessional. Moreover malnutrition among school children is not a problem in Hongkong.
10. Hungary The school feeding programme in Hungary was organised before the Second World War, and expanded subsequently. Children are selected on the basis of family income. Funds are provided by the state for the school lunch programme.
11. Indonesia School feeding had never been tried in Indonesia until 1969 when CARE started a school snacks programme for children in the nursery and elementary schools. The school snack consisted of imported food Soy- Soy-Milk for two or three years and it
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration which was temporarily established soon after the second war, to give relief in the war devasted areas of Europe.
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was discontinued for lack of control. It is difficult to plan for a school feeding programme in Indonesia, because there are too many children in the school age group. Of the 132 million inhabitants, 42.2 per cent belong to the school age group and only 57 per cent of this group are able to go to the school. Because of the great demand, schools are run in two or three shifts. Under these circumstances, although school feeding programmes are desirable, it would be beyond the capacity of the government to fund such a programme.
12. Ireland In Ireland, the local authorities were given powers to provide meals for children attending the National Schools. A free milk scheme initiated in 1933, was designed to meet the needs of sickly children mainly in the pre-school group. The School Acts of 1930 and 1933 authorised the Country Councils to -provide meals for children attending the National Schools in certain rural areas. The cost was shared equally by the state and local authorities. In Dublin Schools, sandwiches of meat, cheese or jam were supplied together with one- third litre of milk. The proportion of children participating in the school meal during the year 1948-49, the most recent period for which data are available, was approximately 18 per cent of the children attending schools.
13. Italy In Italy, a number of towns provided school meals in the early years of the century through voluntary effort. After the Second World War, wide-spread feeding programmes were made possible by the UNICEF and UNRRA. The school meals supply 75 per cent of the child's daily requirements of protein and fat.
14. Japan The first school lunch in Japan was served to needy children in 1889. In the early 1900s lunch was served in the schools not only for charity purposes, but also to improve the conditions of malnutrition and weak constitution. The present system, which was adopted in 1947 covered all school going children, without any discrimination against regions and personal circumstances. A survey conducted in May 1975 shows satisfactory development of the system, reaching 14,917,727 children who constitute 84.4 per cent of the total number of school children in Japan. The standard
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for required nutritional quantity in school lunch has been established from time to time. The existing standard prescribed on April 1974 is as follows:
Calories and Nutrients Quantity
Calories 650
Animal protein (g) 26.5
Fat (g) 18.5
Calcium (g) 0.35
Vitamin A (I.U.) 1000
Vitamin B 1 (mg) 0.55
Vitamin B 1/2 (mg) 0.65
Vitamin C (mg) 19.5
There are three expense categories for accounting the money spent in the operation and administration of the school lunch programme. (1) equipment and facilities, (2) labour of cooking personnel and (3) materials and supplies for the meals. Of these, those for materials and supplies are borne by parents and the rest by the establishers of schools. The charges on materials and supplies for school lunch are different among individual schools and regions. Children (6-11 years) are fed at school five times a week or for 180 to 200 times a year. Free lunches are provided from funds of government and local authorities to needy children and pupils who number approximately, 5,50,000 in total. All children in school are provided with the lunch for equality.
The Government subsidizes the school lunch programme in Japan for its sound development and popularization, taking care of the following items of expenditure.
(1) Facilities and equipment necessary for operating the school lunch programme (11.0%).
(2) Free school lunch for needy children and for those who study in evening schools (19.5%).
(3) Adjusting supply demand situations of materials (2.7%).
(4) Materials used for the school lunch programme such as wheat flour and milk (44.8%) and
(5) Salaries for nutritionists who are in charge of the school lunch programme (22.0%).
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Today the school lunch programme in Japan is one of the finest in the world in terms of concept, philosophy, coverage and outcomes. It is a requirement by national law.