Pupils’ satisfaction with school mid-day meal program

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differences in pupils’ satisfaction on various aspects of mid-day meal (MDM) program in India across food catered by centralized and decentralized kitchens. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on structured questionnaire survey through personal interviews of 1,200 school children of primary and upper primary schools of four districts of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Simple statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been used for meaningful data analysis. Findings – Pupils’ responses on 17 attributes of their satisfaction on school meal program were reduced to four components − quality of food, social bonding, health and hygiene and availability of support infrastructure, using factor analysis technique. Findings show the perceived differences in satisfaction on various aspects of MDM program. Further, ANOVA indicate that there is significant difference in the satisfaction level on MDM supplied through centralized and decentralized kitchens. Practical implications – This study provides an understanding of pupils’ perceptions of school meal program in order to enable policy makers, school administration and caterers of MDM to design better food service delivery models. Social implications – Findings of the study clearly indicate that benefit of social bonding is an added advantage to continue the school meal program irrespective of the fact whether food is served through centralized or decentralized kitchens. Originality/value – There are several evaluation studies undertaken by various agencies to assess the impact of MDM program in India. However, there are only limited numbers of studies available, which have analyzed the children’s satisfaction on school MDM program across kitchen types.