Perceptions of school meal services of middle school students and dieticians/dietetic teachers in Gwangju area according to the conversion of free meal services / 한국영양학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate satisfaction with and perception of the school meal service according to middle school students and dieticians/dietetic teachers in Gwangju area who experienced change to the free meal service and the main contents were as follows. METHODS: The research subjects were 197 students (99 boys and 98 girls) and 42 dieticians/dietetic teachers were recruited. RESULTS: Compared to the free meal service before, satisfaction of students was high (53.8%), and 69.9% of students said there was no change in the school meals, however a significant difference was observed between gender. Overall 80.2% of middle school students said that there was no change in menu, 70.6% were no change in the frequency of food with high preference, and 64.0% were no change in leftover of meals. 85.7% of dieticians/dietetic teachers said that there was no change in the student's satisfaction according to the conversion of free meal services; 59.5% of dieticians/dietetic teachers said that there was no change in the frequency of foods with high preference, the variety of vegetables was increased in the qualitative change item of food materials, and 95% of them were not aware of change in the amount of students' leftover foods. Dieticians/dietetic teachers had limitations in selecting menus with purchase and costs of food materials (26.2%) by conversion of the free meal service and their priority considered was the food cost (45.2%) when they selected menus. Change in feeding affairs was office work management (26.2%) and recipe research and development (19.0%). CONCLUSION: With the results of this study, the satisfaction with the school meal service was not changed in the awareness of students and dieticians/dietetic teachers. Therefore further study is needed to determine the middle school's satisfaction with school meals based on a variety of factors including the environmental food meal services.