Teachers’ opinions of school lunches and the potential for school provided lunches in Victoria, Australia

One in five Australian children are food insecure (1) , and the majority are consuming inadequate vegetables and too many energy dense nutrient poor foods (2) . A healthy school lunch program provided to all children will ensure fair and equitable access to essential nourishment during a school day that can improve academic achievement (3) , attention, behaviour and concentration (4) and mental health and wellbeing (5) . However, prior to implementing a school meal program, opinions and thoughts of key stakeholders, including teachers, should be explored. The aim of this study was to explore Victorian primary school teachers’ perceptions and opinions of current lunch practices and school provided lunch programs.An online survey of primary school teachers in Victoria was administrated via Qualtrics. Frequencies and percentages of responses were calculated and Chi Square tests were used to explore associations with demographic variables (gender, school type (government, independent, catholic, other)). A total of n = 322 Victorian primary school teachers completed the survey (95% female, 81% government schools). All year levels (Prep–grade 6) were represented. Thirty percent agreed and 45% were unsure whether there should be a school provided lunch program. Most teachers (91%) believed that the school provided lunches would allow children to eat healthy foods and 73% believed it would be convenient for parents. Perceived barriers included; cost for parents (81%), teachers do not want to serve food (75%) and time it would take to serve the food (70%). There was no difference between teachers in government and independent schools in preferences for a school lunch program or perceived potential benefits. However, more teachers from independent schools believed it would take too much time to serve food to all children (81%) compared to teachers from government schools (68%; Pearson’s Chi-Square test, p = 0.045). Additionally, more teachers from government schools thought that delivering a school provided lunch program may reduce teaching time, than teachers from independent schools (52% vs 37% respectively: Pearson’s Chi-square test, p = 0.041).While most teachers agreed school provided lunches would provide children an opportunity to eat healthy food for lunch and would be convenient for parents, less than a third agreed there should be a lunch program and many were unsure. Concerns included taking too much time to serve food and thinking they would need to serve the food themselves. This may be due to a lack of understanding of school provided lunch programs. Further research can investigate effective ways to mitigate some of the identified barriers when designing a school meal program.