Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
Publication Date
5-2025
Abstract/ Summary
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.Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.