First of all, I would like to thank all of you who took a few minutes to fill up this questionnaire at the end of last year.
I started the survey for two reasons, first was my curiosity of what the other children eat for lunch, what parents perceived as healthy lunch and an extension of my short course about 'children and nutrition' from Stanford University.
We have a total of 44 parents responded to the survey. As promised, I would love to share the results with those of you are curious too about this topic.
How important is it to you to be able to provide a nutritious food for your child?
Hoe belangrijk is het voor u om uw kind gezond te voeden?
I think we all agree that providing a nutritious meal for our children quite high on our priority list. Parents have a crucial role in the nutrition behaviours of their children. With a busy lifestyle and a battle about providing healthier food that the children will eat. The healthy option is often overlooked.
How much control do you have over what your child(ren) eat?
Hoeveel controle heeft u over wat uw kind eet?
The average score for this is 72.5 out of 100. We live in a generation where we give a lot of freedom to our children on choices in life at such a young age. However, when are children are still at a young age, we have more opportunity to influence their choices and introduce them to a healthy lifestyle.
PS: Did you know that food companies paid top dollars on children television's primetime, eg. when mommy is busy cooking dinner?
Getting my child(ren) to eat healthy is
Mijn kind (eren) gezond te laten eten is:
The average score for this is 55 out of 100, which means many of us are facing challenges of getting our children to eat healthily. Let's take a look at the common challenges on the next chart.
Based on the above chart, the most common challenge that parents face is having picky eaters. Second most common challenge is time constrain. I love this tips from Dr Maya Adams from Stanford University on how to deal with picky eater.
Other reasons mentioned on the surveys on some challenges are:
Limited of time at school on lunch break. Tijdens lunch op school is de tijd beperkt en ook de middelen (bijv geen opwarmmogelijkheid voor soep)
Irregularities in standard rhythm, for example social visits. Onregelmatigheden in standaard ritme, sociale bezoeken bijvoorbeeld
Schools do not have a canteen where the hot lunch can be provided in a form other than bread. Scholen hebben geen kantine waar de warme lunch verzorgd kan worden in andere vorm dan brood
They like sandwiches. Ze willen graag boterhammen
Children live with other parent
Moving on to the next question about convenience. Often, we associate convenience with time and ease.
How convenient it is to provide a nutritious lunch for your child(ren)?
Hoe makkelijk het is om je kind (eren) een voedzame lunch te verzorgen
Whether you are a stay at home parent with small children or a working parent, morning rush hour is a thing! Trying to get the kids ready for school, while packing the lunch are already two things that we have to multitasks. If you are not a morning person like me, mornings could be rather stressful. Based on the feedback submitted through this survey, here are the common healthy lunches that parents prepare at home for the kids to eat at school (overblijven):
- Bread with hearty filling such as cheese, cheese spread, peanut butter, lean meat or chicken - Cut fruits/vegetables
- Wholegrain biscuits/crackers
In bigger cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague, London, Sydney, Singapore there are children lunch-box subscription by private companies to help busy parents ensure that they have some help preparing the children lunch boxes. Or some school set up a healthy canteen to cater to the children in collaboration with food nutritionist and local farmers and communities. The next question is to understand if such services would help to ease the parents in the morning by allocating lunch preparation task to a dedicated party.
Would it help you if there is a healthy lunch service provided for your children during school days?
Zou het u helpen als er tijdens uw schooltijd een gezonde lunch voor uw kinderen wordt verzorgd?
Based on 44 numbers of survey participant, more parents opted to 'Yes' to help for a healthy lunch service provider, but the number is not far off from the 'No'. Also our survey size sample is not big enough to reflect a community perspective on this at the moment. In average, parent would spend €3.50 per day for a healthy lunch provided for each child.
Lastly, from our last question, we understand the age group of the children from the parents who filled up these survey.
Check out more inspirations and ideas for children healthy lunch here.