Food and eating environments: in Canadian schools

This national study was conducted to examine healthy eating programs, healthy eating education, and the food retail environments of schools.

A total of 436 Canadian schools were studied. Administrators completed a questionnaire designed to assess school healthy eating programs, healthy eating education, and food retail environment. The number of chain fast food restaurants, chain cafés/coffee shops, and convenience stores within 1 km of schools was measured using geographic information systems food retailer measures from DMTI Spatial Inc. and the Yellow Pages.

During the preceding year, 67% of schools had initiated healthy eating lunch programs while 18% had junk food-free days. The majority of schools offered cooking classes (59%) and healthy eating media literacy education (67%), while a minority offered gardening activities (15%) and field trips to farmers' markets (27%) and grocery stores (36%). Fifty-three percent had a school cafeteria, and most had a school tuck shop (75%) and pop/juice vending machines (76%). Fifty percent had a chain fast food restaurant, 33% had a chain café/coffee shop, and 41% had a convenience store within 1 km.

An important aspect of addressing childhood obesity will be improving the food environments of schools and their surrounding neighbourhoods, and providing healthy eating education for all students.