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A paper by Visiting Scholar Irene Vidal and colleagues suggests schools can play an important role in improving how children and adolescents eat.
After reviewing 65 studies on school food interventions across Europe, Vidal and team found that the most common interventions were nutrition education programs, such as classroom lessons, cooking activities, gardening, games, and digital tools. These were often linked to healthier eating habits, especially higher fruit and vegetable intake and lower consumption of sugary drinks and snack foods. Some studies also found improvements in nutrition knowledge, food confidence, and, in certain cases, weight-related measures such as body mass index.
The review also found that direct food provision matters. Programs that offered free fruit and vegetables or healthier school lunches were associated with better dietary intake, greater willingness to try healthier foods, and in some cases reduced household food insecurity. Multicomponent approaches, which combine education with changes to the school food environment and broader school policies, appeared especially promising because they may reinforce healthy habits over time. At the same time, the evidence base remains uneven. Most studies focused on primary and secondary schools, while preschool settings were underrepresented, and relatively few studies examined food provision alone.
“A major takeaway is that school food policy can support both health and equity, but only if it is designed carefully,” says Vidal.
The team found that some interventions worked particularly well in lower-income or migrant communities, improving diet quality, weight-related outcomes, and food security. But other programs seemed to benefit more advantaged students more, suggesting that poorly designed interventions could widen disparities.
“Europe needs stronger long-term investment in school food, more attention to younger children, and more explicit equity-focused evaluation so that school-based nutrition programs do not just improve average outcomes but reduce inequalities as well,” Vidal adds.
Vidal is a doctoral student at the Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) in Madrid, Spain.
