Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Introduction:

This chapter provides an in-depth foundation on the study's issue by reviewing pertinent
literature and studies that are helpful to the study. In order to support and validate the specifics
of this study, this chapter covers the relevant literature and studies. The researcher can use this
to support the assertion and significance of the current study.
Review of Related Literature:

By evaluating relevant literature and studies about the "Impact of high costs school
meals to the students allowances," this chapter gives the study's problem a thorough
foundation.

School Meals:

School meals are essential for the students, teachers and also staff of the school
to survive a day by day classes. School meals are a standard component of national
safety net programs in developed economies and often offer kids breakfast and/or lunch
with an emphasis on increasing food quality, especially among low-income people
(Copenhagen, Denmark, 2006). Based on research by Evans and Fei Xu (2015) in the
UK, new, enforceable criteria for school meals were implemented between 2006 and
2009. With little success in the classroom, intervention trials to enhance school lunches
in England prior to the standards were carried out (Parker & Fox, 2001), supporting the
necessity for a national policy. There is a large body of research published on school
food in the UK. Half of the primary school children (aged 4–11 years) in the UK have a
school meal while the remaining students take a packed lunch to school that is prepared
at home. 

In British schools, the importance of school meals is paramount. School lunches

are an apparent tool for policy intervention in children's diets because about 45% of
students in primary and secondary schools consume them every day. Also, school
meals are part of a program that is means-tested. Students tend to rely more on food
provided at school now than they did thirty years ago, which suggests that school meals
are likewise more significant today than they were in the past (Belot a, James, 2011).
According to World Food Program, in the five areas of the Northern Province where
primary education has been impacted by the three decades of conflict, tsunami, and
climate shocks, school meals play a significant role in the lives of children and their
families.

According to Au, Gurzo, Gosliner, Webb, Crawford and Ritchie that with 22% of
calories coming from school breakfast and nearly 31% from school lunch, school meals
can make up more than half of a child's daily caloric intake. By bringing school meals
into compliance with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Healthy Hunger-
Free Kids Act (HHFKA) significantly improved their nutritional quality (DGA).

Rising Prices of School Meals:

 An article was written by Nik Popli (2022) that several school districts around the
country are being forced to raise prices or provide more constrained menus this autumn
as students return to the classrooms due to the nation's school cafeterias' struggles with
rising inflation, staffing shortages, and supply chain interruptions. Millions of families
may have to pay more for breakfast and lunch this year, despite the fact that schools
are rushing to find creative alternatives. In certain districts, the price of lunch may be
close to $5 each day, or $900 over the course of a complete school year, more than
double what it was in 2017. It also stated in the article some evidence of other schools'
struggle that they currently facing due to the rising prices of school meals like for
example the director of food and nutrition at the Glendale Elementary School District in
Arizona, ordered nearly every food item for the upcoming school year, and almost all of
it is much more expensive than it was in 2021. Costs for cases of hamburger patties are
up 21%, cans of sliced pears are up 24%, and cases of cereal are up almost 9% from
the previous year. Because the tortilla chips are too pricey and difficult to get, the school
district has even ceased offering its well-known "walking tacos" and in Prince George's
County, Maryland Public Schools, the cost of food and supplies has increased in Prince
George's County, Maryland, schools by an average of 12 to 20% over the past two
years. Fruit prices increased by 10 cents per serving, while milk carton prices increased
by 6 to 7%. These price hikes quickly mount up in an area that serves 50,000
breakfasts and 80,000 lunches daily according to their director of food and nutrition.

According to a recent New York Times article, several school districts are moving
forward with price increases for school lunches this year despite facing criticism. The
district ultimately decided to raise the price by 25 cents, bringing elementary lunches to
$2.25, middle school lunches to $2.50, and high school lunches to $2.75 in Seymour,
Connecticut, a town that had not raised school lunch prices in many years. This year, a
handful of New York City districts, including Riverhead and North Syracuse Central,
increased lunches by a fourth. 

On the authority by Chapman (2022), school districts deal with growing food and
labor costs, and families throughout the nation are confronting increased costs and
fewer options for school lunches. As a result of ingredient prices that have increased by
50% or more this year, many districts across the nation have increased the cost of
school food by as much as 50 cents per meal. Boulder Valley School District has
experienced significant increases in the price of ingredients, just as other school
districts in the county. Many of the biggest increases they have observed are for wheat-
based goods. In Oakland Schools in Michigan, the president of the School Nutrition
Association and a child nutrition consultant delineated that many districts have raised
pricing by 20 cents or more each meal due to growing food and labor costs.

Based on the Committee on Education and Labor (2009), the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, the price of basic necessities including bread, milk, and cheese increased
by a startling in 2007 and in California, a school nutrition director
reported that production has increased by about 10%, frozen and dry foods by almost
20%, and dairy products have increased by more than 20%. Some districts claim that in
order to lower labor costs, they were forced to reduce personnel and food servings. The
rising cost of food has forced many summer feeding programs to serve fewer students
in order to cover these increasing expenses.

On the other hand, many schools are simply implementing increased prices this
year when legislation that was approved by the White House last year becomes
effective for the current academic school year since the good news for them is that
healthier menu options are available along with the higher pricing, which should keep
youngsters in prime learning condition throughout the school day. The cost to produce
healthier food increases when dietary rules for school lunches start to change. For
many school districts, this entails passing at least some of the price rises along to
families, some of whom are already struggling to make ends meet. As a result of the
adjustments, many school districts are telling parents in great detail about the reasons
why schools had to raise the cost of school lunches during such a difficult economic
time (Chen, 2023).

Relation of High-priced School meals with the Allowances of the Student:

School meals obviously can affect the student's daily allowance or weekly
allowances, especially those who come from low-income families which would
aggravate when the prices of school meals are rising. These are related studies and
articles, journals and recent studies that support this claim.

Based on this research by Sholihah, Kusna, Mahardika, Nugraheni, Eriyani,

Yulindasari, Taftania and Nurabadi (2020), there are several canteen principles
according to Anggari, namely the principle of affordability, the principle of education, the
principle of cooperation and the principle of health. The focus of this study is the
principle of affordability since it relates to the student's finances or allowances. The
principle of affordability includes affordable prices which mandate that students from all
socioeconomic situations have access to affordable food and beverages with their
pocket money.

A price increase on anything is rarely welcome news in the current economic

situation, where many people are practically pinching money to survive. For some
parents and students, nationwide rises in the price of school lunches are adding yet
more strain to already severely constrained finances (Chen, 2022).

Based on the quantitative study of  Gacad, Montenegro, Prada and Salas(2019)
in Saint Mary's College Qc, there are 116 correspondents in total, with 44 grade 11
students making up 37.93% of the population and 72 grade 12 students making up
62.07%. According to their graph for "allowance per week," 25% of the votes were for
"others," which means that their weekly allowance is either less than 100 or more than
500 pesos. Yet, 95% of respondents said they spent their allowance on food, and 1%
said they spent it on school supplies. On condition that the prices of meals in the
canteen are expensive thence, their allowances are inadequate for other expenses in
school.

According to the study by Valera (2019), student allowances cannot cover all of
the immediate requirements and needs that students may have in school. If there are no
intervening factors, such as availability of the goods, their quality and price charge, the
amount of the students' allowance, and consumer satisfaction, then the respondents
believe the school canteen's goods to be "affordable." In addition, their individual
allowances have a significant impact on the affordability of the canteen's offerings.
Hence if the prices of meals in the canteen are going high, it would be a problem for the
student because it leads to damage to their allowances.

Correlation between High prices of School meals to Students'

Performance:

Supposing that high-priced school meals are continued, therefore it would result
in to increase in students skipping meals in order to save money. In an article written by
Scatton, 2021), three out of every five college students, on average, have experienced
food insecurity while enrolled in classes. They surveyed 1,000 current college students
to better understand the difficulties and risks they face in pursuing an education, and
they discovered that 29% of students skip meals every day because they cannot afford
to eat, 18% of students work more than 35 hours a week on top of school, and 78% of
college students have had to choose between paying for food and paying for school.
They also questioned students how frequently they skipped meals because they could
not afford food or needed to save money, and 39% claimed they skipped meals once a
week, while 29% reported skipping meals every day. The majority of people struggle
with food insecurity frequently or even daily, and their burden hinders their ability to
learn.

According to research by the American Psychological Association (2020),

students who were food insecure had much higher rates of depression, loneliness, and
anxiety than those who had reliable access to enough food. Also, they had worse grade
point averages, and lower self-esteem, and were more likely to leave school before
graduating.

In the United States, college students frequently forgo meals and snacks. One-
third of college students skip a single meal, per a College Pulse poll. Meal skipping is
done for a variety of reasons. The cost of food or food insecurity can be a problem at
times. On all 10 campuses in 2015, the UC system conducted an online survey with a
preponderance of undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 24.
Approximately 9000 students participated and 40% reported experiencing food
insecurity. According to research from the University of Louisville's Health Sciences
Center, skipping meals also lowers metabolism, burns fewer calories, causes weight
gain when you do eat, depletes energy, which can make students groggy and fatigued,
and causes headaches and trembling that may affect their performance during class
(Gooodkind, 2021).

In the background study by Gao, Zhao and Shu (2021), children and teenagers
frequently skip breakfast, and as they become older, the occurrence becomes more
prevalent (Affenito et al., 2005; Rampersaud et al., 2005; Delva et al., 2006). This may
be more prevalent in some low socioeconomic or minority ethnic groups resulting in a
negative effect on their motivation, academic success, and test scores (Chang et al.,
1994; Adolphus et al., 2019). Frequent breakfast eating is linked to academic success in
kids and teenagers in a good way (Adolphus et al., 2019). Children who are
undernourished and lacking in certain nutrients have been shown to have negative
effects on their physical, mental, and social well-being as well as their ability to think
clearly (Read, 1973), and hungry children may lack the energy and motivation to
participate in class activities (Leslie and Jamison, 1990; Scrimshaw, 1998; Worobey
and Worobey, 1999).

On the authority by Remond (2018), according to the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC), hunger brought on by inadequate dietary intake is linked to poorer academic
performance, higher absence rates, repeating a grade, and difficulty focusing in
students. These studies demonstrate how important breakfast and lunch are to
students' academic achievement. It's likely that a student who hasn't eaten in eight
hours will perform worse in class than a kid who has and linked to a progressive decline
in pupils' cognitive performance.

Due to the rising prices of meals in the canteen, some students will be frustrated
about how they are going to allocate their money since their allowance is not only for
food but also for academic purposes. Hence they are working while studying in order to
provide for their needs in school including the meals in the canteen seeing that not
everyone comes from high-income families. These are some articles and studies that
will support the claim that working while studying how can negatively impact a student's
academic performance and simply evaluate the correlates of high-priced school meals
to the academic performance of the student.

Based on the article in Hunterlodge (2022), the number of students using food
banks has increased significantly from 5% in January 2022 to 11% as a result of one-
third of students now living on less than £50 per month in disposable income. Several
pieces of evidence point to the connection between financial stress and poor student
mental health, which can affect the learning process. Students are "on the brink" due to
huge rises in the cost of utilities, food, and living expenses, according to an NUS
representative. Students should be allowed to concentrate on their studies, but instead,
they are compelled to spend their time working and surviving.
 In accordance with a recent study by Abenoja, Accion, Aguilar, Alcasid, Amoguis,
Buraquit, Mama, Pacete and Pame (2019) working while a student is challenging which
most likely in striking a balance between your social life, family time, career, and school.
Figuring to find ways to deal with the pressure that comes with being a working
undergrad, and making sure you have at least one night off each week can help you
feel less stressed ten levels higher (Mitchell, 2016). Filipino students are nevertheless
able to provide for their financial needs by working despite their financial difficulties.

Economics — a lack of finances and financial resources — is the cause. Working

and studying simultaneously can increase revenue or resources for matriculation or
other necessities (Velasco, 2014), including the ability to pay for expensive school
meals. The performance of the students in school is one of the detrimental effects of
working while learning. Whether a student works on or off campus, working more than
20 hours a week has a negative effect on their grades. According to the Council on
Higher Education (CHED), barely 50% of working students complete college since so
many of them struggle to cope with their academics (Curambao, Yapching, Casinillo,
Lungayan, Tolentino, Castillo, Eliguir, Hadjijalil, and Enojardo, 2015)

The Benefits of Free or Reduced-price School meals to Students'

Performance:

Subsidized school meals is an initiative aimed at helping students from low-

income families access healthy and affordable food options to promote their academic
success and overall well-being. Due to the increasing prices of school meals, a lot of
programs created to provide free or reduced-price meals for students who are struggling
financially. Therefore, subsidized school meals would prove that school meals have a
positive impact on their nutrition that improves the academic performance of the
students and assist to alleviate financial strain on low-income students. Students who
lack access to food should receive free or discounted meals at colleges. Their academic
progress would be greatly aided by this (Westbrook).

In the current study, Sorensen, Dyssegaard, Damsgaard, Petersen, Dalskov,

Hjorth, Andersen, Tetens, Ritz, Astrup, Lauritzen, Michaelsen and Egelund (2015)
investigated how providing wholesome school meals affected the focus and academic
performance of Danish students aged 8 to 11 years old. Although it is often believed
that nutrition may assist children to do better in school, there is still scant and conflicting
evidence to support this claim. At baseline and at the conclusion of each research
session, the d2 test of attention, the Learning Rating Scale (LRS), and common tests of
reading and math competency were given. Hierarchical mixed models were used to
assess the impact of the intervention. The intervention enhanced reading speed (0/7
sentences, P= 0/009) and the number of correctly formed sentences (1/8 sentences,
P/0/001), which equated to 11 and 25%, respectively, of the effect of one academic
year. The percentage of sentences that were correct also increased (P< 0 001),
showing that the proportion of correct sentences increased considerably more than
reading speed. Results from the LRS or overall math performance were unaffected. In
conclusion, school meals had no effect on Concentration Performance, but they did
improve reading comprehension, a difficult cognitive task that requires inference, and
significantly increased impulsivity- and inattention-related errors.

In rural China, they examined the long-term impacts of a school lunch program
on children's cognitive and physical health that leads to student participation. They
discover that early exposure to the Student Nutrition Improvement Program (SNIP)
(ages 6–15) significantly improves children's cognitive and health outcomes over time
by taking advantage of the program's staggered deployment (Fang, Zhu, 2022).

According to the study by Cohen, Hecht, McLoughlin, Turner and Schwartz

(2021), the correlation between universal free school meals and kids' participation in
school meals, diets, attendance, academic performance, and Body Mass Index (BMI),
as well as school finances, has been the subject of research that has been evaluated in
this systematic review. Almost all research looking at universal free school meals
discovered connections between participation in school meals and favorable outcomes.
The majority of research looking at universal free school meals, which also included free
lunch, discovered connections between diet security, academic achievement, and
quality of diet.

Quantitative studies by Gov. of India, 2000, Laxmaiah et al., 1999, Dreze and
Goyal, 2003 have compared enrollment and attendance rates across academic years
within treatment schools or through a cross-sectional comparison of participation rates
in treatment and control schools to determine the effectiveness of cooked school meals
in India. The majority of the statistics indicate that the initiative was successful in
increasing enrollment and attendance rates, particularly for girls.

Based on the argument by Versmeerch and Kremer (2005), school meals

contribute to educational performance through nutrition that relies on two links; school
meals can improve nutrition; and improved nutrition impacts educational achievement.
They stated that most evidence is observational though there is some proof through
experimental.

More recent studies by Golley, Baines and Bassett, Storey, Pearce and Ashfield-
Watt) have discovered that a 12-week intervention that offers healthier options in the
school cafeteria has positive effects on post-lunch learning-related behavior. These
findings suggest that school meals can play an important role in improving children's
reading comprehension skills and overall academic performance.