The content of school lunches packed at home were heavily influenced by the child’s desires rather than the parent’s choice, with reports of concerns about price and anxieties about whether their lunch was eaten, according to findings from the United Kingdom published in the Journal of Nutritional Education and Behavior.

“School lunches play a key role in the overall nutrition of a child,” Hannah Ensaff, PhD, lecturer in nutrition at the School of Food Science and Nutrition within the University of Leeds, England, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Depending on the relative nutrient quality of a child’s school lunch and home food provision, they can, in some instances make a substantial difference to their overall dietary intake.”