Japanese kids love school lunches more than eating out; Taiwan holds its first school lunch competition

School nutrition lunches are an important source of nutrition for children, but the quality of school lunches varies across Taiwan. To improve the quality of school nutrition lunches everywhere, balancing tastiness and nutrition while also implementing food education, the Da Xiang Food Education Association and the Fubon Cultural and Educational Foundation held the "First Taiwan School Lunch Competition" on the 20th and 21st, with ten teams from across Taiwan competing in the finals.

Japan has achieved great success in promoting school nutrition lunches, and Taiwan's school lunch competition was modeled on Japan's school lunch Koshien competition. Invited to Taiwan to share Japan's nutrition lunch experience, Renjo Baba, chairman of the 21st Century Ideas Association, said that Japanese children love their school nutrition lunches very much. According to actual interview results, if you ask children what mealtime makes them happiest, "the most people answer school lunch." This beats restaurant takeout, fast food spots, and dinner at home.

Yang Shun-mei, senior advisor at the Fubon Cultural and Educational Foundation, said that school nutrition lunches differ greatly between Taiwan's public and private schools, and between rural and urban schools. "When we saw the school lunch in Lanyu, we thought, how could anyone eat this; when we saw the lunch at a private school, we really wanted to eat it." She stressed that there will always be gaps between schools, "but our responsibility is to shrink that gap to the smallest possible." School nutrition lunches account for one third of a child's diet and must be taken seriously.