School Meals

by Philip Phyo

July, 2022

Source : Flickr.com

Introduction

THE SCHOOL MEAL, a phrase that brings up many ideas to my mind and
probably to other people’s as well
 Movies set in high school use school meal time as a opportunity for
characters to interact, for the better or for the worse. School meals, being food
obviously, are used for so called ‘food fights’ that we see in movies

They are also symbols of flexing if you observe closely enough. Remember
the times when you and your friends would eat your home-made lunches
together, and then you opened your lunch box to show o that you brought rice
with more than one type of curry instead of just one curry. Your friends would be
self-consciously impressed while you would tick one thing o of your
metaphorical ‘Things to do to make me cool at school’ list. However, this
wouldn’t be your win all the time because there is nothing stopping your friend
from asking for a bite of this and that from your lunch box after your lunch box
uncovering.

I think I have to distinguish, for the sake of this article, between ‘meals at
school’ and ‘school meals’, the latter of which is the discussion topic of this
article. Basically, school meals are meals for breakfast,lunch or dinner that are
provided for the people at school, mostly students, by the school. Meals at
school, however, are any meal, brought by you from outside or provided by the
school so they are ‘whatever food’ that you eat at school.

If you still don’t get the idea of school meals, imagine you arrive in front of
the cafeteria Aunty with your empty plate and your ‘impatient from the long
queue’ face while she pours you a hot meal with her signature ‘another school
year, another year of low-paid misery’ expression. Then, you will surely
understand.
Source : Flickr.com

I guess most students in Myanmar, who have never experienced school

meals on such a regular and institutionalized basis, won’t get what school meals
are like. Probably the closest thing to a ‘school meal’ that I personally have
experienced are the overpriced french fries and drinks that ‘food stalls area’ at
my school sells but I would be lying if I didn’t say those fries were the tastiest
thing to my 10-year-old brain back then. Many Myanmar students would beg for
pocket money from parents to go eat ‘Myanmar barbecue’ which honestly are
just processed foods on a stick drenched in suspiciously bright red-color chilli
sauce, and I was proudly one of those student.
Source : Wikipedia Commons

However, being in a ‘low-income’ and ‘developing’ country doesn’t mean

students should deserve the bare minimum of resources when it comes to their
education and well-fare. I would argue that ‘school meals’ should be a major
part of the conversation when it comes to the allocation of these resources.

So, let us see how school meals are categorized and administered all over
the world in order to get a better understanding.
What is a school meal?

Source : Wikimedia Commons

According to Wikipedia, a school meal is a meal provided to students and

sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the beginning or middle of the
school day.

Though the majority of countries and their schools charge the students for
their meals, the costs are a ordable for most students in those countries. Some
countries take the more charitable route and make the school meals free of
charge.

More often, these meal planning initiatives are done at the federal level
with the federal government bearing the cost but local governments, non-profit
organizations and individuals do chip in for the ‘school meal’ e ort.Since the
meal roll out is centralized, i.e. controlled by the federal government, federal
guidelines on the nutrition level of the school meals, especially for younger
students, is enacted and enforced.

However, what counts as a nutritionally balanced meal di ers from

country to country, and even from region to region of the same country. Food
availability, health of the economy, as well as variety in culture and mindset of
the general population play a role in school meal plannings.

How did school meals become a thing?

I will talk about how school meals became a thing in the United States

The concept of school meals was quite linked to the concept of schooling
itself. Well-recognized and prestigious universities today such as Harvard in the
United States and Oxford in the United Kingdom were once gated communities
of the rich and wealthy kids for learning the fine arts and philosophies, two
studies that were considered important by the then wealthy elite. However, even
these two universities were not immune to the changing tide that rapid
industrialization had caused on the western world and were forced to diversify
their curriculum and their student population.Practicality and job-readiness was
the new thing and schooling was one of the most important ways to achieve
that.
Old Photo of Harvard University, US

Source : LOC’s Public Domain Archive

If we think about it, schools are literally meant for training immature
“young adults” into more mature “functional adults”. It won’t be too hard to find
similarities between a normal school day with its time-accuracy expectations,
obedience towards the teachers and following of the prepared rules & scheduled
activities from a normal work day at a factory, the final destination for the newly
graduate students.
Source : Picryl Public Domain

With this new industrial age came increased poverty among the
working-class families. Malnourishment of children also increased around that
time and massive moments began to take form to alleviate this problem. First,
the solutions were communal with cities and districts, along with the help of
charity organizations, finding the budget to experiment the idea of ‘meal
preparation’ with one or two public schools, and then, after the positive feedback
like students attending schools regularly and learning more e ectively because
of the relatively inexpensive school meals, they spread it to the whole city or the
entire school district.
Source : Wikipedia Commons

It won’t be long before the United States government stepped in and

implemented a national program on school meal planning.

“The National School Lunch Program”, as stated on USDA website, “is a

federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private
schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced,
low-cost or no-cost lunches to children each school day. The program was
established under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, signed into
law by President Harry Truman in 1946. About 7.1 million children participated in
the NSLP in its first year. Since then, the program has reached millions of children
nationwide: 1970: 22.4 million children; 1980: 26.6 million children; 1990: 21.1
million children; 2000: 27.3 million children; 2010: 31.8 million children; and 2016:
30.4 million children.”
 I hope this is a brief yet concise explanation on how school meals became
a thing in the United States. Similar programs were being rolled out in di erent
countries at the same time as the US. After World War 2, the concept of school
meals really became mainstream.

What is included in a school meal?

Obviously, what counts as a full meal, or rather, a nutritionally balanced

meal varies from country to country. However, looking at all of the school lunch
varieties across the world, there are generally a type of protein, a type of starch
and a type of vegetable as the main dish, and if available, fruit, dessert or drink in
the school meal.

Source : Wikipedia Commons

Standards for school food in England

Source : www.uk.gov
Final Rule: Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast
Programs, US

Source : www.fns.usda.gov
Aim of Japanese school lunch program

Source: www.nier.go.jp

Types of School Meals

There are generally three types of school meals around the world categorized by
a ordability:

1. Free meals

2. Reduced price meals

3. Full priced meals

Free meals

Since the beginning, free school meals for students have enticed both
parents and students to attend school regularly and for longer hours. This is
quite understandable as sending their kids to school which would provide both
care as in nutrition and health as well as education to them seems like a win-win
situation for working moms and dads. Even though the majority of the public
would agree to a ordable school meals, them being free is a hot topic of debate
among politicians as well as in public discourse, in which both sides have
note-worthy points to make.

Countries such as England, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and India o er free

school meals to all students in compulsory education. So, we can see that most
countries, even if they o er school meals, students or rather parents will have to
foot the bill. However, even then, many countries have options of their own for
low-income families to sign up for free meal programs, subsidized by the
government.

Reduced price meals

These are another type of assistance by the government for those who
cannot a ord the full price. In the US, for instance, certain agricultural products
are in agreement to be bought up from farmers by the government, which then
allocates those products like dairy products to school meals or sell them for
cheap as part of school meals. Similar measures can be found in countries like
Japan and France.
Full priced meals

For those a uent enough to pay, full price meals are for you. If you want
something more than the meal prepared by the school, you can add on a little
snack or drink for some extra cash. The vending machines all over US schools
are places where you toss in cash and out comes your treat.

School meals across the world

France

Lunch is considered the most important meal of the day in France.

Students get one to two hour lunch breaks, during which they can eat at school
or go home for lunch

The government is quite strict with the nutritional guidelines which state that as
little fat as possible should be present, vitamins and minerals must be included
and the main course should include meat, fish or eggs.

A school lunch in France contains an appetizer, salad, main course, cheese plate
and dessert
A typical school lunch in France

Source : Wikipedia Commons

Japan

According to web.japan.org, a typical school meal consists if cooked white rice, a

main dish, a side dish and soup, accompanied by dessert and milk. Examples of
the Japanese food that students like are grilled fish and boiled meat and
vegetables.

School lunches have been a wide-spread thing in Japan since after WW2 when
poverty was a major concern in urban centers like Tokyo. Thus, the then
government set up national guidelines on feeding the Japanese youth in schools.
Curry is another popular dish served with rice in Japanese schools

A typical Japanese School Lunch

Source : Wikipedia Commons

India

In india, school lunches are free for the tens of millions of students who
attend government schools each year. This is administered through the Midday
Meal Scheme in which students attending government-aided schools and child
care centers are provided midday meals, which are funded 60% and 40% by the
federal government and the states respectively.

The mid-day meal scheme gives every child in every government-aided

Primary School a meal with minimum nutritional content of 12 grams of protein
and 450 calories. For Secondary Schools, each meal provided contains 20 grams
of protein and 700 calories. Menus of the meals are developed in accordance
with the local tastes and available produce from the local area. The meal
includes rice and roti, a type of bread, with vegetables and sometimes fruit.

Children would often sit next to each other on mats and eat their food.

A typical School lunch in India

Source : Wikipedia Commons

Conclusion

School meals are one of those things that is universally liked by everyone yet no
one can agree on who should pay for its massive cost.

It is generally agreed upon that a well-prepard meal at school ups the learning
mood of kids while downs the pressure for parents on how to feed their kids at
school.

Meal time can also be an experience : meeting new friends, trying out new foods
as well as having time for processing your thoughts or that delicious meal.
Meal time with friends and family is not an unfamiliar thing to Myanmar people,
who use every chance they can get to cook up feasts for hundreds of people
whether for family or for stranger.

A mother waking up early mornings to prepare lunch boxes for her school-going
kid is a common things you would hear about here.

So, why not give mothers here a break and find other ‘school meal’ solutions for
students, that are comprehensive, scalable and sustainable for Myanmar?

Author’s note

All images used in this article are part of the Creative Commons License and
therefore this educational usage of the images is fair

I give permission for readers to copy, share and use this article with the
requirement that you credit my name

Sources

Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_meal

https://web-japan.org/kidsweb/cool/17/kyushoku.html#:~:text=A%20typical%20school
%20meal%20consists,and%20boiled%20meat%20and%20vegetables.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/nslp-fact-sheet

https://www.gov.uk/school-meals-healthy-eating-standards
https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/fr-012612

Files

School lunch program in India

https://campussuite-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/prod/11162/b2004386-1ca3-11e6-b53
7-22000bd8490f/2054981/32c82f80-571c-11ea-b524-12f4a7a23217/file/FSindiaedit.pdf

School lunch program in Japan

https://www.nier.go.jp/English/educationjapan/pdf/201303SLP.pdf

The National School Lunch Program, US

https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/NSLPFactSheet.pdf

How the School Lunch Program Began

https://icphusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICPH_UNCENSORED_2.2_Summer
2011_HistoricalPerspective_Lunchtime_HowtheSchoolLunchProgramBegan.pdf

Related Topics

What school lunch looks like in 19 countries around the world

https://www.businessinsider.com/school-lunches-around-the-world-photos-2017-4

How school lunches measure up in countries around the world

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/09/health/school-lunches-in-other-countries-parentin
g-without-borders-intl/index.html
‘The cost has become astronomical’: UK schools struggle with rising food prices

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/may/17/uk-schools-struggle-with-risin
g-food-prices-astronomical