Five main categories and eleven subcategories emerged in the qualitative content analysis of the FGDs with pupils and kitchen staff (Table 1).
Table 1
Main categories and subcategories.
Experiences with the new menu | The meaning of diet sustainability | Factors influencing plant-based food acceptance | Opportunities to increase plant-based eating | Need for a supportive environment to achieve dietary change |
Variations in how the new menu was received | A broad and varied understanding of diet sustainability | The decisive role of taste, appearance, smell and recognition | Focusing on familiar foods and naming dishes carefully | More knowledge, resources and inspiration |
A challenging experience to work with the new menu | Diet sustainability important but hard to realize | Habits, peer pressure and fears challenging acceptance | Increasing exposure, normalisation and motivation | Increased involvement of stakeholders |
| | | Gradual and realistic changes are key | |
Experiences with the new menu
Variations in how the new menu was received
Pupils and kitchen staff experienced the new menu in different ways. Some pupils had not noticed the change in menu while others had registered small changes such as new dishes and more vegetarian food:
“I didn’t notice much, I just noticed that there was more vegetarian food and stuff like that.” (Pupil grade 5, male)
They expressed that most food tasted better during the intervention period and that it was a positive experience to try new dishes. However, some of the pupils could recall that their peers had been dissatisfied with the food. Similarly, the kitchen staff experienced that pupils were often complaining about the food and that they did not eat very well during the intervention.
Teachers were the ones perceived to have been complaining the most about the new menu according to the kitchen staff, even in front of the pupils. But there were also some dishes that the kitchen staff themselves were skeptical towards:
“I would never want, I mean it tasted good but the way it looked when you had followed the recipe, it was like 'It can’t be served because no one will eat it', I wouldn’t even have wanted to, if I just went in (to the canteen) and saw it, I wouldn’t have wanted to taste it.” (Kitchen assistant, School 1)
A challenging experience to work with the new menu
Kitchen staff expressed that it was a challenging experience to work with the new menu during the intervention. Time, budget, palatability and management of leftovers were dominating aspects here. It was also considered fun to try new recipes, as well as interesting, but time consuming to measure the kitchen and plate waste daily. The food on the new menu was perceived to be cheaper and gave insights on how to contribute to more sustainable practices:
”You think a lot more, I mean you actually think a lot, a lot more about the budget, not just the economy but the environment, so you start thinking more, you do it automatically.” (Head chef, School 2)
However, it was also challenging to handle leftovers during the intervention, especially from mixed dishes with pulses that they perceived as less appropriate to save for another occasion. Several of the dishes in the new menu were also much more time-consuming to prepare and make tasty and appealing, which was considered to be another challenge. Hence, to tackle this, the kitchen staff needed to plan and work more around the seasoning of the dishes.
The meaning of diet sustainability
A broad and varied understanding of diet sustainability
The perception of the meaning of diet sustainability was broad and encompassed many different aspects. Among the kitchen staff, the concept of sustainability implied improvements that must last for a long time:
“Well, that you should get better I suppose, that it should last as well. You cannot do something that lasts only for a week, but it should last for the rest of your life. Not just a week's history, but it should work and be seen somewhere, and be felt.” Head chef, School 3
Furthermore, kitchen staff described diet sustainability as eating foods that are good for the whole body, organic food and foods that have a long shelf life. Pupils discussed diet sustainability in relation to meat-consumption and food waste, which they thought were unsustainable practices. Pupils also talked about the co-benefits of environmentally friendly foods with respect to human health, stating that that meat is not good for health while vegetables foods are health promoting. Other kitchen staff and pupils did not really know what diet sustainability meant to them.
Diet sustainability important but hard to realize
The kitchen staff acknowledged the importance of considering sustainability in their day-to-day practice and thus tried to contribute to environmental sustainability when ordering food, e.g. exploring ways to make substitutions that are better from a climate perspective. The economic aspect was nevertheless perceived as a limitation in making decisions as the kitchen staff have a specific budget that they need to stick to.
Pupils also recognised the need to prioritize and take responsibility to achieve sustainable development. They thought that eating less meat was one of many ways to contribute to sustainable development, although they did not at all highlight this aspect when describing the factors that determined their dietary choices. Pupils further expressed that this issue was hard to implement, despite a will to do so:
“…you always try to think 'Yes, well I’ll do it', but to break these habits that you have all the time… Well, it’s surprisingly difficult. You’re only in the present.” (Pupil grade 8, female)
Factors influencing plant-based food acceptance
The decisive role of taste, appearance, smell and recognition
Pupils expressed a general dislike of the school meals, irrespective of the intervention, due to what they perceived as a bad taste of the food being served. The taste of the food was thus highlighted as one important aspect to the acceptability of plant-based (i.e. vegetarian or vegan) foods and pupils think that plant-based dishes should be seasoned better. The (less preferable) taste of plant-based dishes was thus expressed as an important reason for why they were currently not widely accepted amongst pupils:
”Most people don’t like vegetarian dishes. So that's why they don’t eat.” (Pupil grade 8, female)
The appearance of the food, its smell but also their familiarity with different dishes, were also seen as important determinants of the acceptability of plant-based dishes. Pupils thus expressed that they preferred plant-based dishes that resemble animal-based foods in an overall sense, dishes that they recognize and appreciate:
“...yes well most people like chicken, so you can have something that is quite similar to chicken in terms of both taste and texture.” (Pupil grade 5, female)
Habits, peer pressure and fears affecting acceptance
Kitchen staff perceived that pupils in general have difficulties accepting plant-based dishes as they do not have the habit of eating mixed dishes with beans and vegetables. Peer pressure was also seen as a difficulty in getting pupils to eat school meals in general, something that was seen as more likely to happen with unfamiliar dishes.
”Sometimes four or five pupils can come (to the canteen) and then when one says 'No but oh, no we don’t eat', they just look at each other and then they just leave.” (Head chef, School 1)
Pupils perceived that there is a general reluctance towards plant-based foods that inhibits them from eating/trying the school lunch.
”People are kind of afraid to taste. It's usually not so disgusting, it's just that when it says that it's vegetarian, then people don’t even want to taste.” (Pupil grade 8, male)
Opportunities to increase plant-based eating
Focusing on familiar foods and naming dishes carefully
The kitchen staff perceived that there are several plant-based dishes such as pasta dishes, vegetarian burgers and tortillas that the pupils like and thus could be served more frequently. Lentils could also be served more often since they are more widely accepted and easily mixed in with meat dishes where they are not directly visible to the children. Kitchen staff also said that it works well when they avoid the term “vegetarian” when naming dishes, and instead use names that pupils recognize:
”Yes but lasagna, kids like lasagna. It’s the name lasagna they like. They eat lasagna even though it is 'green'.” (Kitchen assistant, School 2)
In line with this, pupils talked about vegetables as something distinct from vegetarian food:
“I don’t eat vegetarian very often, and when I eat it, well I prefer like normal vegetables over like vegetarian things and stuff like that. So, I would rather take like meat and vegetables, than vegetarian foods really.” (Pupil grade 5, male)
Increasing exposure, normalisation and motivation
The pupils discussed increased exposure to more plant-based foods in the canteen and/or through school activities that could be key in making them more accepted. They further thought that plant-based eating should not be associated with the act of having to take a stand on something but thus instead be treated as normal practice:
”Well, that it isn’t connected to anything that’s healthy or political… If we were to have vegetarian days, they should not be so connected to like 'Oh this is sustainable development', of course you have to be aware of it but there are people who know it anyway. And it should not be the healthy alternative but rather just something that’s common.” (Pupil grade 8, female)
Another way to making plant-based foods more acceptable could be to highlight reasons why these
”If you think like this, personally, I think that people might become more interested if they think that it has to do with themselves ... That you learn what the positive consequences for yourself would be…that it might make a difference for your studies in school, that you feel better. There are many who play sports, and they could learn why it’s good for them, because everyone wants to get better at something, and knowing why it can be better, then maybe people will be a little more inclined to like, 'Yes well it wasn’t that hard'.” (Pupil grade 8, female)
Gradual and realistic changes are key
Both pupils and kitchen staff seemed to agree on the fact that a dietary shift towards more plant-based food could be achieved by employing moderate, gradual changes. Pupils highlighted the importance of finding solutions to sustainable habits that are realistic:
”I don’t know if you could remove the meat completely, but you really have to change for the sake of the environment, you have to think about what’s sustainable. You may not need to remove all meat, you could have organically or environmentally friendly produced, I don’t know… The solution is to find environmentally friendly ways without us having to stop with everything.” (Pupil grade 8, female)
Similarly, kitchen staff thought that menus like the one used in the intervention were too large a change for the children. They discussed the importance of making stepwise changes to the school meals instead. Furthermore, kitchen staff discussed the importance of making children accustomed to plant-based meals already in preschool in order to create a natural transition to the climate friendly lunches in school.
Need for a supportive environment to achieve dietary change
More knowledge, resources and inspiration
In order to achieve dietary changes towards more plant-based eating in schools on a broad scale, both pupils and kitchen staff brought up the need for a supportive environment with more knowledge of why and how to eat (and cook) more sustainably. Although the school curriculum includes some aspects about sustainable eating, pupils still thought that there is a need to discuss this issue more. Kitchen staff said that they completely lack training in sustainable cooking. They also stated that they lack financial resources and adequate equipment in their work environment to have the capacity to produce sustainable meals of good quality. Educational initiatives that can promote inspiration and motivation among the staff were seen as something that can create positive attitudes around the food that in turn can spread to the pupils:
”You could serve carrots in broth - if you think it's super tasty, then you can make diners think so too...” (Head chef, School 3).
Increased involvement
Involvement was highlighted as an important factor to achieving dietary changes towards more plant-based eating in schools. Pupils said that they eat more at home where they get to decide more. They thus thought that they should be more involved in deciding the menus, but that they are currently not listened to:
"Sometimes they say something like 'What foods would you like? Write on the wish-list and then we’ll do it'. We are writing on this wish- list, but nothing happens.” (Pupil grade 8, male)
Accordingly, kitchen staff considered the (existing) school food councils as important in providing inputs to new ideas on dishes and menus. Kitchen staff also thought that they themselves need to be more involved in developing new menus making use of their knowledge about the context, their experience and creativity, to develop dishes that better match their dining guests’ preferences. An increased involvement from, and cooperation between kitchen staff, teachers, the school management, parents, and politicians in the municipality were also seen as critical to achieving broad-scale dietary change towards more plant-based eating in schools.