Six out of ten public schools do not have a cafeteria service: "The later they eat, the worse they eat"

BarcelonaThe bell rings at 3 p.m., you leave school, chat about the day with your friends, go home—walking or on the school bus—drop your things, make yourself lunch—or heat it up if your parents have left it unattended—and sit down in front of the TV at 4 p.m. This is the reality for thousands of teenagers who attend public high schools in Catalonia, where only 35% of secondary schools offer a cafeteria service. This also means that only a third of students in public high schools can access a lunch grant.

The origin of this situation lies in the cuts implemented by Artur Mas's government: the Department of Education opted for most high schools They will switch to an intensive work schedule. —instead of holding classes both morning and afternoon—, which led to the closure of cafeterias, kitchens, and canteens in secondary schools starting in 2012. Currently, the vast majority of public secondary schools only hold classes until 3:00 p.m., and some of the combined primary and secondary schools that do operate on a split schedule are having trouble finding teachers who agree to this timetable.

Now, the Catalan government intends to begin reopening cafeterias in secondary schools—it's one of the investiture agreements that the PSC reached with Comuns—but, as it announced The NewspaperFor now, the program will only begin with fifteen high-complexity schools. "We are currently working on these fifteen cafeterias, but we hope this is just the beginning of the recovery of cafeterias in secondary schools," explain sources from the Department of Education, who insist: "That is our plan for the future." In any case, according to the latest data from the Catalan Ombudsman, there are currently more than 300 secondary schools in Catalonia without a cafeteria or canteen service. "They don't have a cafeteria because they don't have afternoon classes, and now they can't have afternoon classes because they no longer have a cafeteria. It's like a vicious cycle," describes Daniel Gabaldón, a sociology researcher at the University of Valencia who specializes in school time management. "The problem is that when you need to schedule all the class hours before lunch, what you're doing is cutting into students' rest time, and that has consequences for their attention and health," warns the sociologist.

Furthermore, the lack of school meals has a significant impact on the most vulnerable families, who lose the option of receiving meal assistance that they very likely received when their child attended school. "Today, in Catalonia, only 18% of students between the ages of 6 and 16 receive a school meal grant, when we know that the poverty rate in Catalonia is 35%," denounces Maria Truñó, director of Aliança Educació 360 and collaborator with the Bofill Foundation.

Lunchtime and sunshine

"Not having a cafeteria at school doesn't cause an eating disorder, obviously, but it does entail a series of factors—such as 12- or 13-year-olds starting to eat on their own much later—which, combined with the adolescent stage itself, can increase the risk of developing eating disorders," says Gabaldón, a professor at UPF and coordinator of the Litoral Mar Child and Adolescent Day Hospital. Despite this warning, he emphasizes that "eating disorders are multifactorial." Gabaldón insists that one of these risk factors can be the fact that school schedules are not adapted to the rhythm of adolescents. "They get up earlier than they should, they don't eat breakfast because they're sleepy, and they go to school where they spend seven or eight hours eating what they've brought from outside, which often ends up being junk food they buy themselves," describes the Valencian expert, who reiterates that the fact that students "do" things must also be considered.

In this sense, the clinical psychology specialist at UPF also warns that not eating in an organized way can disrupt meal times and alter the internal regulation of appetite. "Eating lunch late, skipping meals because it's late and you think you'll have dinner later, eating alone in front of a screen... These are all aspects that end up making you eat unhealthy meals," explains Batlle.

"What the scientific evidence says is that eating later leads to poorer quality nutritional choices; that is, the later they eat, the worse they eat," insists Gabaldón. In fact, the sociologist warns that this can affect eating habits, both due to a predisposition to obesity and the risk of developing a possible eating disorder.

Less socialization

Beyond the impact on nutrition, the lack of a cafeteria at the high school also triggers a chain reaction that affects students' socialization. "The cafeteria is an extension of the right to education and is a key educational environment for student socialization," argues Truñó. She also insists that cafeterias are a tool to "prevent unwanted loneliness among students" and that not offering the cafeteria service ultimately leads to not offering extracurricular activities in the afternoon either. In this regard, Gabaldón adds that all of this means that, in the afternoon, teenagers spend many more hours alone, use screens more, and do less sport. Finally, the director of the Education 360 Alliance also warns that not having a cafeteria can end up impacting academic performance. In fact, a recent study by the La Caixa Foundation concludes that "students who receive a partial cafeteria grant obtain better results on the Catalan basic skills exam than those children who apply for it but do not receive it." "When we talk about educational improvement, we must think of it as a whole package. It's not just what they learn in the classroom, but the students' overall well-being," Truñó adds.