Abstract:
School meals (RS) must provide meals to students in order to increase the schooling rate, improve their diet and academic performance. In Algeria, the number of school canteens has grown significantly. The number of student beneficiaries exceeded 4 million in 2013. The objective of this study was to realize an inventory of the RS with a description of the different structures and the nutritional quality of the food offered and propose improvement tools for RS officials. We conducted a case study to better understand the organization as it exists in the RS. It is a qualitative approach with a descriptive aim in school canteens in Constantine during the school year 2007/08. We used a questionnaire of 3 components: - Part 1: Description of the premises, the organization and the functioning of the RS informed by interview of the managers and the kitchen staff. ; - Part 2: Evaluation of the nutritional quality of the meals offered after the daily consumption sheets have been analyzed; - Part 3: Knowledge of students' opinion of RS by means of a questionnaire completed by the RS beneficiaries. For the canteens, three situations are noted: those who propose hot meals prepared on the spot, those which propose cold meals and those which propose hot meals served by a central kitchen. For the CEM and the high schools, it is about hot meal prepared on the spot. School kitchens are like home cooking, and dining rooms are classrooms that do not meet the requirements. Hot meals consist of a main course, an animal product and a dessert plus / minus one entry. The presence of the five food groups in the average ration was noted.
Cold meals consist of bread, an animal product and a fruit. The energy, protein and iron contributions meet the recommendations in most cases. Those with calcium and vitamin A are insufficient. In high schools, the distribution of major nutrients in the energy intake of the rations proposed is imbalanced, the share of lipids is higher at the expense of that of carbohydrates. More than half of the students are satisfied with the quality and quantity of the food offered, however, they are not satisfied with the atmosphere in which the meal is consumed (noise). It is possible to improve offers by offering more dairy products and fruits and vegetables. The noise problem in the canteen can be minimized if the supervisors ensure the education of good eating habits to students.
