Eat well, feel well, learn well: A case study of The School Lunch Program pilot at Berrima Public School

Introduction
Australian children consume one-third of their day’s food intake during school hours1, equivalent to 2,400 lunches if a child completes 12 years of schooling2. Food consumed at school is an opportunity to support all Australian children to be well nourished to better engage in their learning, develop social skills and support growth, health and wellbeing3, 4. However, over 80% of students’ lunches are considered to be poor nutritional quality, and intake of the five food groups is well below national dietary guideline recommendations1. Within school hours most children consume less than one serve of vegetables, meat and alternatives or milk and alternatives1.

Most commonly, children attending Australian schools bring a lunchbox packed from home, or purchase food from an onsite canteen or external meal provider2. The current lunchbox model encourages provision of cold/temperature stable, pre-prepared foods, limiting opportunity for cooked dishes, which can restrict variety, cooked dishes consisting of a range of food groups and provision of cultural foods. An estimated 1.2 million Australian children were living in food insecure households in 20215, with some children not having enough food to eat during school. In situations where children come to school without food, they may be provided with meals through school food relief programs2. However, to date, nutrition promotion initiatives, such as education programs or school food policies, have produced inconsistent improvements in lunchbox quality6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. This lack of improvement is likely due to remaining challenges, including for example, food access and insecurity, and parental time needed to pack lunches2, 12. In addition, the rising cost of living has increased pressures on families. As such, Australia has reached a tipping point for transformative action for school food.

The current Australian school food system contrasts with most other countries with developed economies, which have school-provided meal systems in place. Internationally, universal school-provided meals have been shown to improve attendance, classroom attention, cognition, academic performance, learning-related behaviours, social skills, nutrition and health13. School-provided meals can alleviate the impact of household food insecurity, providing a safety net, improve the diet quality of children and support families by reducing the time burden, cognitive load and caregiver shaming often associated with preparing school lunchboxes14. There has recently been national interest in transforming the school food system to a school-provided lunch model2, leading to several school lunch pilots across Australia. Transformation of the Australian school food system has considerable potential to address the barriers for food provision experienced by families and stakeholders under the current predominately caregiver-provided school food system. Therefore, it is time for transformative thinking, finding innovative solutions, and shared responsibility, to improve the Australian school food system and deliver better outcomes for Australian children.