Comparison of staff and student assessment of quality and preference for menu offerings
1992
Smith, E.R.
Menu items that are acceptable to students must be offered if school food services are to provide meals that contribute significantly to meeting students' nutrient requirements. The purpose of this study was to compare ratings of school food service (SFS) personnel perceptions of students' preferences to actual student preferences for menu items. A survey instrument with a 5-point Likert-type scale was developed to ascertain SFS personnel and students' ratings for 99 breakfast and lunch menu items. A rating of 5 indicated strong preference, while a rating of 1 indicated little preference. The survey instrument was completed by 371 SFS employees and 812 students in grades 6, 8, and 10. Mean scores and scores within group rankings were analyzed. The SFS personnel mean ratings of students' preferences for menu items were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than students' ratings for each item. When the menu items were ranked for each food group by mean scores, however, the rankings of SFS personnel and the students were very similar. This suggests that SFS personnel may not be able to predict the degree to which students prefer food items but are able to predict students' relative preferences from among menu items.
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