The nutritive contribution of school dinners and other mid-day meals to the diets of schoolchildren.

In a dietary study of 112 Cambridge families, 191 primary and secondary school children kept 7-day records of measured food consumption. Of 955 weekday lunches recorded, 533 (56 per cent) were school dinners. School dinners provided less than one quarter of the recommended daily amount (RDA) for energy, iron and riboflavin, and less than one third of the RDA for protein, calcium, thiamin and ascorbic acid. School dinners provided a smaller proportion of a day's nutrient intake than did other mid-day meals. Total energy intakes were lower on school-dinner days than on other week-days. Children from lower income families had larger school dinners and obtained a larger proportion of their daily nutrient intake from school dinners than did children from higher income families. School dinners played their most important nutritional role in the lower income families.