School health, nutritional and educational programs are aimed at improving nutritional status, health and well-being, cognition and educational achievement of children and adolescents. The recent global economic crisis coupled with issues surrounding obesity and health inequalities has given rise to a renewed interest in school feeding programs across the world. There are numerous school health and nutrition interventions worldwide, ranging from macro programs led by governments, NGO’s to smaller local initiatives often based in individual schools. Over the last decade more and more education sector planners are recognising the importance of school health and nutrition programs as a key component in terms of meeting nutritional, cognitive, educational, social, economic and cultural needs of children, adolescents, their families and communities. Research has demonstrated that schools can provide an effective vehicle to deliver such interventions as they provide a means of delivering age-appropriate knowledge as well as providing a means to access a service (e.g. school dinners, breakfast clubs, fruit and snack interventions etc.) at a national, regional and local level. However, such programs often deliver messages about healthy eating that do not coincide with children’s, adolescents and family practices in out of school contexts, and trade-offs of various school feeding models need to be considered as programs struggle in terms of sustainability. The multi-faceted nature of this topic results in it spanning a number of diverse disciplinary backgrounds encompassing a number of different theoretical perspectives. Therefore, in order to fully understand the precise outcomes/impacts and implementation models of such programs it is important for academics and practitioners to have an open forum to be able to share knowledge.
In this Research Topic, we wish to bring together a collection of original, review and opinion papers from international researchers and practitioners from across a diverse range of disciplines. In doing so, this Research Topic will provide an excellent resource for academics and practitioners alike and will support policy and programme implementers in making evidence based decisions.
School health, nutritional and educational programs are aimed at improving nutritional status, health and well-being, cognition and educational achievement of children and adolescents. The recent global economic crisis coupled with issues surrounding obesity and health inequalities has given rise to a renewed interest in school feeding programs across the world. There are numerous school health and nutrition interventions worldwide, ranging from macro programs led by governments, NGO’s to smaller local initiatives often based in individual schools. Over the last decade more and more education sector planners are recognising the importance of school health and nutrition programs as a key component in terms of meeting nutritional, cognitive, educational, social, economic and cultural needs of children, adolescents, their families and communities. Research has demonstrated that schools can provide an effective vehicle to deliver such interventions as they provide a means of delivering age-appropriate knowledge as well as providing a means to access a service (e.g. school dinners, breakfast clubs, fruit and snack interventions etc.) at a national, regional and local level. However, such programs often deliver messages about healthy eating that do not coincide with children’s, adolescents and family practices in out of school contexts, and trade-offs of various school feeding models need to be considered as programs struggle in terms of sustainability. The multi-faceted nature of this topic results in it spanning a number of diverse disciplinary backgrounds encompassing a number of different theoretical perspectives. Therefore, in order to fully understand the precise outcomes/impacts and implementation models of such programs it is important for academics and practitioners to have an open forum to be able to share knowledge.
In this Research Topic, we wish to bring together a collection of original, review and opinion papers from international researchers and practitioners from across a diverse range of disciplines. In doing so, this Research Topic will provide an excellent resource for academics and practitioners alike and will support policy and programme implementers in making evidence based decisions.