RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

Promoting Healthy School Meals For Norwegian Children

Knut-lnge Klepp(1),(2), Gunn-Elin Aa. Bjorneboe(2), Margrete Halvorsen(2), Bente Wold(1)

1) Research Center for Health Promotion, University of Bergen, Bergen; 2) Norway National Nutrition Council, Oslo, Norway

The National Nutrition Council has since 1991 given a high priority to securing a well-organized school meal for Norwegian school children. This effort has focused on introducing school cafeterias, securing that all students have at least a 20 minute lunch break, and to stimulate students to bring lunch-packs from home. New recommendations for school meals and promotional material suggesting how cafeterias and the school meal can be organized have been produced and distributed. The National Nutrition Council has provided economic incentives for schools to develop new models for organizing the school meal, and a national campaign to promote lunch-packs has become an annual, highly publicized event. Furthermore, the Council has been promoting legislation that would make it obligatory for local municipalities to ensure well-organized school meals for all students in the grades 1 through 10. Using Norwegian data from the international WHO Health Behaviour in School

Children surveys we investigated changes in reported meal patterns among 5th, 7th and 9th graders from 1983 to 1993. From 1983 to 1989 we saw a significant trend indicating that fewer students were eating lunch every day (from 74% to 64%). This trend was, however, reversed from 1989 to 1993 as the proportion of students reporting to eat lunch every day increased to 73%. This pattern was seen for both boys and girls and for students in all three age groups. A similar pattern was seen for the proportion of students reporting to eat breakfast and supper every day. However, the changes over time were less pronounced than for lunch. As of 1996, the Government has made it obligatory to ensure well-organized school meals for all students in the 10 first grades of the Norwegian public schools. The National Nutrition Council continues its effort to promote healthy school meals, and further studies to evaluate the impact this effort might have on the dietary habits of school children are underway.

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