Food and Age in Europe, 1800-2000 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Germany, European General
ISBN: 9780429958090
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2019-01-16T05:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

School meals certainly did not meet the expectations of nutritional experts during the period in question, even though the situation did improve somewhat over the years. A document of the Ministry of Education from 1967 pointed out that inspections of the value of the served meals in some regions revealed a significant lack of almost all nutrients – 64% of proteins, 46% of fat, 58% of calcium and 58% of vitamin C. The total calorie value of the food was only 76% of the standard. Alarming results were identified mainly at boarding schools with all-day catering, where the negative situation was even stressed by the army based on experience during conscriptions. In children and youths dependent on meals at school, including boarding schools, doctors detected a lower resistance to communicable diseases, slower bone maturation during growth, increased tooth decay and latent anaemia.42

The shortcomings inherent in the traditional Czech (and Slovak) cuisine proved to be substantially more obstinate than doctors had originally expected, but the main limiting factor was finance, which is to a large degree true even for school meals in the Czech Republic today. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, school meals gradually became a phenomenon affecting the nutrition of almost three-quarters of all pupils. In the memory of many people today, they associate the pre-November regime with excessive collectivism and the intrusion of official authorities into the private sector, with catering as an example. Witnesses and literary authors often describe canteens as an arena for exercising power practices and repressive oversight or as a place of conflicts and clashes between pupils of different ages. Meals from school canteens are often regarded as the source of different dietary traumas. It is undeniable, on the other hand, that school meals were probably the only rational solution to the issues caused by a sharp rise in women’s employment. Although it did not usually yield the desired effects in terms of rationalization of nutrition of the youngest generation and its real form did not match the ideal, many contemporaries evaluate it positively in hindsight. The base of school catering in the Czech Republic went through a huge transformation after 1989. The offering of meals was mostly expanded, and nutritional recommendations also changed.43 In many cases, the environment in which pupils had their lunches was improved. However, the Czech Republic still struggles with some negative aspects of school catering from the pre-November era (e.g. uniform meals),44 and economic issues also have some new perspectives.45 The tension between the expectations of nutritional experts, the preferences of pupils and the possibilities available under financial constraints also persists. School meals are used, however, by most pupils even today, and they remain a crucial part of children’s general nutrition in the Czech Republic.

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