Agricultural News
Lunch Time- How Much is Enough and are Your Kids Getting It at School? FooD Survey Investigates
Tue, 17 Oct 2017 12:29:29 CDT
Oklahoma State University's Agricultural Economics Department released the summary report of the October 2017 edition of the Food Demand Survey (FooDS) this week. According to it, willingness-to-pay (WTP) decreased for all meat products except pork chops and deli ham. WTP for chicken breasts saw the largest percent decrease compared to one month ago. WTP for pork chops remains virtually unchanged from one month ago. WTP for all products, though, is lower than one year ago.
Expenditures on food eaten at home decreased 0.15% over the last month while expenditures on food purchased away from home increased 1.71%. Based on the report, consumers say they expect to slightly decrease for all meat products compared to September. Consumers say they plan to buy slightly less chicken and pork compared to last month. Respondents' plans to eat out decreased compared to last month.
Taste, safety, and price remained consumers' most important values when purchasing food this month. These values are comparable to the top values held by consumers over the last several months. But, one of consumers' main challenges was to find affordable food to fit their budget. Concerns related to weight loss saw the largest month-to-month decrease.
Several new ad hoc questions were added to this month's survey relating to two topics, internet survey panels and the amount of time elementary students have to eat lunch.
Based on the first question, enquiring about the major reasons why people volunteer to participate in internet surveys, nearly half of the respondents answered their main source of motivation came from compensation (financial or otherwise) for their time. About 20% of respondents said they simply enjoyed taking surveys. The majority of those surveyed, though, said they would stop participating if compensation ceased.
Participants were then asked a series of questions related to school lunch programs. Initially in this segment of questioning, participants were asked whether or not they had children in a lunch program, to which 21.3% stated they did.
Those who answered yes were asked several questions relating to the amount of time provided for lunch at their child's school. Participants were then asked: "At elementary school, how much time is your child given for lunch?" On average, elementary students are given about 32 minutes to each lunch. About 39% of respondents stated that their child was given 26 - 30 minutes to eat lunch.
73% of participants stated their child has adequate time to eat lunch in elementary school. About 20% of participants stated their child does not have adequate time to eat lunch. About 7% of participants were unsure if their child has enough time to eat lunch.
Participants who stated their child was not given adequate time to eat lunch were asked to indicate how many total minutes is an adequate amount of time for their child's lunch break.
On average, participants stated that children should be given about 35 minutes to eat lunch. About 32% of participants stated that elementary children should be given 21 - 30 minutes for lunch. About 40% of participants stated elementary children should be given 31 - 40 minutes for lunch.
Finally, participants were asked: "If your child's elementary school increased its lunch break by ten minutes, but school ended at the same time, how do you think this would impact your child's education?".
Half of the participants stated "my child would probably learn the same amount". About one third of participants stated "my child would probably learn more". Only 15% of participants stated "my child would probably learn less".
To take a look at the complete summary report of this month's edition of the FooDS Survey, click or tap here.
Source - Oklahoma State University
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