The Assessment of School Lunches in the Form of Food Packs during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Latvia

Abstract

During the pandemic, Latvian schools switched to remote learning which required looking for solutions to provide state-funded school lunches for pupils at home. The aim of study was to analyse the type of support received by pupils for provision of school lunches, the compliance of the composition of food packs with Latvian healthy diet recommendations and parental assessment of the food packs received. With the help of the questionnaire data on the composition of food packs, parental assessment was obtained by interviewing 1495 parents of pupils in grades 1–4 (age 6–11 years). The composition of food packs was evaluated in accordance with the recommendations for a healthy diet. Food packs were the main choice for the provision of school lunches in all regions (90.70%). The emphasis in the food packs was on protein-rich products like canned meat and meat products (93.36%) and milk (91.37%). 81.71% of food packs contained both vegetables and fruits. Food packs covered basic needs but improvements would be needed. The parents appreciated the support received, 90% of them rated it as positive/partially positive. In the event of a pandemic recurrence, the state would need to work with food producers to provide smaller packaging of products for food packs to ensure food diversity.