Schools are environments where children’s healthy eating behaviors can be improved. Meals served in schools can have positive effects on students’ learning capacity and social interaction. In this study, we investigated the effects of the nutritional environment at school (features of the educational institution, time spent at school, number of meals, catering at school, and how meals are provided) on nutritional status in school-age children. In this cross-sectional single-center study, 268 children were included. When children were grouped as “malnutrition and malnutrition risk group”, “overweight/ obesity group” and “normal BMI group” based on body mass index (BMI) Z scores, the frequency of attending a private school, time spent at school, availability of food service at school, and meal provision type were similar. There was no difference between the groups of short and normal height children in terms of these parameters. It was shown that children with short stature had a higher rate of chronic diseases (p=0.007) and a lower frequency of two or more meals consumption (p=0.022). Having meals served in school dining hall (p<0.001) and consumption of more than two meals were more frequent in children attending private schools (p<0.001), whereas consumption of meals brought from home was more frequent in children attending public schools. In children over the age of 10, especially in the high school group (p=0.005), having fast food from school cafeteria was more frequent. These results suggest that the high number of meals offered in schools may have positive effects on the nutritional status of school children, especially children with chronic diseases. Long duration of time spent at school, the low frequency of two or more meals consumption at school in children with short stature, and the increase in food consumption from the school cafeteria in adolescence period support the importance of healthy nutrition support at school.

Keywords: school, malnutrition, meal, food environment