Forms of organization of school food in European countries

Nowadays, children spend most of their daytime in school. Therefore, school food should be tailored to avoid health problems in children arising from inadequate nutrition. In every country, school food is organized differently. We have made a comparison between the organization of school food in three European countries: Slovenia, Malta, and the Czech Republic. The goals of my diploma work were to determine the ways of supplying school food in different European countries; to find out whether school food is prepared according to the WHO recommendations or not; to compare different ways of organizing school food; to find out the advantages or disadvantages of each of these ways. The descriptive method of work was used. Data were gathered by means of a non-standardized interview. Included into the sample study were schools in Slovenia, Malta and the Czech Republic. Theoretical bases were substantiated by means of domestic and foreign expert and scientific literature and other sources. The results have shown that the organization of school food differs in the three studied countries. We estimate that it is better in Slovenia than in Malta or the Czech Republic. Still, the problems remain since there are many obese children in Slovenia, which shows that not only school food is to blame, but also lack of sports activities and improper nutrition habits in the family. Of the three studied countries, school food in Slovenia is the most consistent with the WHO recommendations