초록
With the enlargement of school meals, the lunch program has played an important role in educating young students about good eating habits and food Preferences. The objective of this study was to investigate the awareness and preference of vegetables and to provide preliminary data required for framing a menu of school meals to help students maintain good food preference and eating habits with a balanced food diet. A survey was conducted from 25th October to 27th November, 2004 with 873 elementary school students (M: 474, F:399) in the 4th, 5th, or 6th grade of 6 schools in Daegu and Gyeong sang but do (Yongchon, Gumi, Pohang). Satisfaction for the school meal was rated by $52\%$ of the students and 'rice and soup' was the favorite meal type. Eating habits of students were not influenced by the employment status of their mothers. Only $11.2\%$ of students selected vegetable as their favorite food. Marsh mallow, taro stem, green bean sprouts, crown daisy and broccoli showed very low awareness and were selected as the least favorite vegetables. The most important criteria of preference were the taste and eating experience of the vegetables. The most preferred cooking method of the vegetables was tchigae which is a simple stew. Recognition of frequency for daily eating vegetables significantly affected the real intake of vegetables for everyday meals and the preference of vegetables also significantly affected the vegetable intake from the school meals. Compared to the school dietitian, mothers showed a greater frequency in being selecting as an educator of nutritional information. The above results indicated the need to improve the level of students' understanding of the importance of vegetables in the daily diet with parental education and publicity.
