Vivian is a single mother who cares for a 13-year-old daughter. They both live in the same room in a shared apartment in Madrid. Vivian’s daily routine consists of leaving the house at seven in the morning and not returning until eight-thirty at night. She does various cleaning jobs throughout the day and, as soon as she walks through the door, she dives straight into preparing her daughter’s dinner, as well as the next day’s meal. The young woman, barely into adolescence, will eat alone the next day. And the next. And the next. “I prepare her food in such a way that she only has to heat it up in the microwave and eat it, but not even like that. There are times when she doesn’t eat or she says she doesn’t have time… So you have to be twice as attentive to her in that sense,” she says.
When he was at school, the Educo canteen grant was his “lifeline”, but now he has moved to the institute and there is no canteen there. This is not an isolated case: 83.3% of Spanish secondary schools do not have this service, according to the latest report published by the NGO Educo. Back to school, back to the dining room? A difficult start to the year for the most vulnerable children and their families, which reminds us that the shortage of school canteens also occurs in a very complicated context: the shopping basket has increased by almost 40% over the last 3 years.
54% of families struggle to make ends meet
Families struggling to make ends meet increased last year to 54% of households with minor sons and daughters, 28% of whom admit to having “some difficulties” and 26% to having serious complications. Nearly 10% more families than last year are in this “suffocating” situation, the NGO says.
Vivian and her daughter have not eaten fish for two years because they cannot afford it, but they are no exception: more than 550,000 children and adolescents and more than 333,000 households with sons or daughters under 18 cannot afford to eat meat, chicken or fish (or their protein equivalents) every other day. This is the highest figure in two decades.
“One of the mothers from the Single Mothers Solidarity Association, poor thing, went to the pediatrician and he told her that her son was overweight and what to feed him. She explained it to him and he told her that ‘not that, it’s junk food’, that he couldn’t give him breakfast, like a muffin, and her mother said crying: ‘and what do I do, if that’s the only thing I can eat?’ Can you compensate for buying in packages and not being hungry?’” says Vivian. Another mother from the association, she explains, has to take her child out of school at lunchtime, give him “anything” on the street, and wait until school time to drop him off again and rush to work.
For the poorest families, with two sons or daughters under 14, the cost of school meals represents at least 16% (one sixth) of their income, Educo points out. Only one in three scholarship holders benefits from it. In other words, 63.7% of those who need it and apply for it do not receive this aid.
Impacts on children and adolescents
Pilar Orenes, director of Educo, explains that the school canteen not only guarantees a healthy meal a day, but also constitutes an environment of protection and development, where boys and girls resolve conflicts and interact with adults in a different way. “It is the school canteen and everything that happens around it. This is our demand: that it be considered part of education, part of the center project. And, what is essential, it must be guaranteed to everyone and, in particular, to those who are at risk of falling into poverty and exclusion,” he adds.
A good or bad diet has consequences on the ability to concentrate, memorize, reason and on speech behavior.
Albert Arcarons
— Sociologist and former director of the High Commission against Child Poverty
Albert Arcarons, a sociologist and former director of the High Commission for the Fight against Child Poverty (an organization that ceased to exist in November last year, with the creation of the new Ministry of Youth and Children), explains that the effects of school canteen policies go far beyond food. A good or bad diet has consequences on academic performance, which are manifested in the ability to concentrate, memorize, reason, and even in behavior and speech.
The expansion of the canteen service in secondary schools could prevent countless risky situations related to adolescence: “We know that when children or adolescents do not go to the canteen, they spend more time at home and not all these homes always have this guarantee of protection: sometimes they eat badly, little or alone. It is more likely that instead of interacting with people their age, they spend more time in front of screens. Their possibilities for socialization are reduced,” they say from Educo.
At school, I was sure she ate a variety of foods, that we watched her eat, but we don’t handle adolescence well at all.
Vivian, single mother of a 13-year-old boy
Just one year of difference, the one that passes between a boy or a girl who goes from sixth grade to first grade, can be enough to turn a family’s life upside down: “At school, I was sure to eat a variety of foods, that they would watch him eat and make sure he ate what he had to eat. But we don’t manage adolescence at all well. Those months spent eating at home, I felt the change a lot. “It’s twice as much work,” Vivian laments. She feels frustrated and before she couldn’t talk about it without crying while trying. “My fear is that I’ll be alone and that it will completely derail me would be…” she comments fearfully.
Lidia Folgar, a dietician-nutritionist specializing in psychonutrition and pediatric nutrition, explains other benefits of the dining room: “The group effect, as equals, is very beneficial when it comes to acquiring eating habits. If there is an established meal and everyone eats the same way, it is the best way to accept it as normal and not as an imposition. The dining room also plays a very important role when it comes to detecting cases of eating disorders: “Staff can identify alterations in eating behaviors in adolescents, which does not happen at home if they eat alone or at a different time from the rest of the family, because they can hide more easily. They can identify warning signs that allow early intervention in cases of eating disorders,” explains the expert. Only 3% of Spanish adolescents, the study highlights, currently benefit from a school canteen service in their institutions.
The first step: guarantee scholarships for those who need them
At Educo they talk about looking at the long term without neglecting the short term. They point to a universal and free canteen model as the final destination (which is already being done in European countries such as Sweden and Finland), but the first step, the one that requires the most urgency and attention, is another: they ask as an essential measure that the general state budgets by 2025 urgently include a new transfer line to the autonomous communities for aid for catering of 468 million euros that, co-financed by the autonomous communities, will guarantee access to free school meals for all boys and girls below the poverty line, accepting this state threshold as the minimum income to access this aid.
Making sure that all children experiencing poverty or social exclusion have free access to school meals is something that should happen now.
Albert Arcarons
— Sociologist and former director of the High Commission against Child Poverty
Arcarons, in his personal capacity, insists on this point: “Several important measures have been taken in Spain, but that all children in situations of poverty or social exclusion have free access to school canteens is something that should be done now. The autonomies should already guarantee it. This is what the European Child Guarantee says.”
Orenes (Educo) points out that one of the first steps to take is to ensure that these services are available in all schools (primary and secondary), since 15% of primary schools in Spain do not even have a canteen.
A universal and free model
In an interview with elDiario.es, Donald Bundy, one of the world’s leading experts on school nutrition, said that “universal and free school meals are neither such a crazy nor ambitious idea,” since “the majority of these types of meals” occur in low- and middle-income countries. Among other things, the application of this model, Arcorons assures, reduces food insecurity among the child population in the face of economic or inflationary crises, as well as war situations.
Less early school dropout, greater likelihood of pursuing college education, and increased earnings in adulthood.
Because countries like Sweden and Finland have had this system for many years, there is enough data to shed light on the question from studies measuring the long-term impact on children’s lives: less early school leaving, greater likelihood of college, and increased earnings as adults.
According to a 2022 Educo study, if the canteen were free, attendance would be 77.38% at the state level. The NGO states that to achieve all these goals, all that is needed is real awareness on the part of society and political will: “We must ensure that we are clear about the contribution that the school canteen makes to children. This would be an almost cultural change that should accompany more practical and operational changes.
If a transition were made to a more holistic model, the former director of the High Commission on Child Poverty points out, systemic change would also be generated at other levels, such as social inclusion, public health, gender equality, work-life balance.
