Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

We have conducted a national survey among employees at kindergartens in Norway about the lunch meal in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic with about 2700 respondents. The survey consisted of both closed and open questions. In Norway, kindergartens usually serve slices of bread with different toppings for lunch most of the days and a warm meal one or two days a week. The paper presents what changes were made during the pandemic, in which many kindergartens switched from served lunches to an arrangement where the children brought a packed lunch from home. We also present the employees’ experiences and thoughts about the advantages and disadvantages of the various lunch arrangements, and a majority of the employees thought that there were large differences in the quality of the packed lunch brought from home, and that served meals in the kindergarten provided the children with more nutritious and varied food. The time spent on food preparation during served lunches in the kindergartens was an issue mentioned in several of the open questions. The employees presented several learning points from their experience with the changed lunch arrangements due to the pandemic, including a higher focus on hygiene, less time-consuming ways to arrange the lunch meals, and the importance of the served lunch meal as an arena for social competence.