Between the school and the family: children´s food knowledge and eating practices

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Organizational Unit

Publications

Marketing e alimentação no espaço escolar: estímulos sensoriais /corporais e a sua apropriação pelas crianças ]

Publication . Horta, Ana; Alexandre, Sílvia; Truninger, Mónica; Teixeira, José; Silva, Vanda Aparecida da

Este artigo visa contribuir para melhorar o conhecimento sobre os contextos de alimentação das crianças durante o tempo escolar. Partindo do pressuposto de que as micro-geografias alimentares (isto é, os elementos visuais e físicos como o sabor, a textura, o cheiro) e ainda o contexto social são fatores influentes na escolha dos alimentos, analisou-se a alimentação em espaços escolares e comerciais, os elementos visuais e estímulos sensoriais/corporais e a sua apropriação pelas crianças. Foram encontrados fortes contrastes que podem conduzir as crianças a preferir a alimentação disponibilizada no exterior da escola.

2013Journal article

Open access

School meal reform and feeding ordering in Portugal: conventions and controversies

Publication . Truninger, Mónica; Sousa, Rosa

Children and young people's food practices are nowadays more visible, surveyed and contested than ever before. There are unprecedented levels of public and media discussion concerning young people's practices, their exposure to marketing and advertisements, concerns around their health education, leisure activities, internet safety, and eating. Regarding the latter: food issues have gained increasing attention from the media and conquered central stage in the policy agendas of several countries. For example, in the UK, the growing interest in children and food consumption is visible in several policy initiatives that commenced in the present century (see Graham et aI., this volume). Some of these attempted to tackle the perceived unbalanced nutritional quality of school meals, to encourage children to eat better (e.g. reduced intake of sugary, fatty foods and fizzy drinks). Other than the UK, more countries are putting considerable efforts to reform school meaIs towards healthier and nutritionally balanced meaIs including sourcing organic and local produce, thus combining an agenda of health with one of sustainability (Morgan and Sonnino, 2008).

2019Book part

Open access

Editorial Introduction: Children's Food Practices and School Meals

Publication . Truninger, Mónica; Horta, Ana; Teixeira, José

2014Journal article

Open access

Alimentação, Austeridade e Criatividade:consumo e cidadania nas cantinas escolares

Publication . Teixeira, José; Truninger, Mónica; Horta, Ana; Alexandre, Sílvia; Silva, Vanda Aparecida da

Em Portugal, a actual conjuntura económica Europeia tem conduzido à redução acentuada da capacidade económica dos grupos mais vulneráveis da população e à implementação de um conjunto de políticas de austeridade que estão a afectar os serviços sociais prestados pelo Estado. Procurando compreender em que medida este contexto está a afectar o consumo alimentar das famílias, neste texto desenvolvemos uma análise sobre o modo através do qual a retracção do Estado Social está a afectar a sustentabilidade das redes de provisão estatais, colocando a sua eficácia na dependência da capacidade dos agentes institucionais desenvolverem soluções solidárias e criativas proporcionais à sua autonomia. Por exemplo, o desenvolvimento de um conjunto de circuitos comunitários de acesso ao consumo de bens alimentares. Por último, colocamos algumas questões que consideramos pertinentes sobre as implicações da transferência de competências do Estado para a sociedade civil e da institucionalização dos programas de ajuda alimentar organizados sob o princípio da solidariedade social.

2012Conference object

Open access

Competing food messages and its appropriation by children at schools and its surroundings

Publication . Horta, Ana; Alexandre, Sílvia; Truninger, Mónica; Teixeira, José; Aparecida, Vanda

School menus represent a rational approach to eating, following nutritional expertise and food safety standards, but children are exposed to food offers that compete with the school menus. In this paper we intend to understand how competing and contradictory rationalities related to food are expressed in concrete visual sights and representations of food, made available to children in school canteens and food shops in the surroundings of schools, and appropriated by them. The empirical data was collected in four primary and secondary public schools in the area of Lisbon. Food-related sights, messages and images displayed at schools and in its surrounding commercial food outlets were subject to analysis, together with data from interviews with school directs and kitchen staff, and focus groups with parents and children, and direct observation. Results show sharp contrasts between sights and representations of food at school canteens and at commercial food outlets outside schools. Data also suggests that subjection to supervision, control and normatively discourse of diner ladies in the canteens stand out against autonomy, freedom and self-management of food purchases in the street. Parents approve and even encourage their children to eat outside the school, as it seems a way of experiencing life, gaining autonomy, socialising and exhibiting a higher social position relatively to their peers.

2012Conference object

Open access