Eating at school, a survey in some italian schools

Abstract

The field research involved a survey in the contexts of school canteens, with the aim of identifying methods and good practices in school catering. 23 schools in the Marche region of Italy were involved in the survey, and the research reached 600 pupils, 81 teachers and 48 canteen operators. The research was designed and carried out by a group of 23 students from the course of Educational Psychology of the University of Macerata, with a survey methodology that saw a desk research on the Italian regulations dedicated to the school catering sector, the use of a structured observation checklist for canteens, the administration of semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. The analysis of the data describes a fragmented framework in the organization of school canteens, which, from a regulatory point of view, respect the parameters and rules of school catering, from the point of view of the educational approach to food have different characteristics. The research seems to confirm the lack of a common approach to food education, affirmed by the Ministry of Education itself in a national research on school catering (MIUR, FoodEdu 2018), highlighting strengths and weaknesses on which to leverage on aim to pursue the goal of a programmed
and widespread and high quality nutrition education in all schools in Italy. As an answer to the issues raised from the data harvesting, we propose a food education project called Edueat - promoted by the training company Laboratorio delle Idee S.r.l. and scientifically
supervised by the University of Macerata. The project aims to promote food education through the use of the senses, play and skills development, within the framework of the major theoretical references of Developmental and Educational Psychology.