Effect of Food Habits and Perceived Food Quality on Satisfaction with Elementary School Lunch in Gyeonggi Province

The provincial education office considers providing school lunch as a foodservice and intends to improve consumer satisfaction. This study investigates the effect of student food habits and perceived food quality on satisfaction with school lunch based on Oliver’s expectancy disconfirmation theory. We test the moderating effect of student gender and school conditions, such as the location of the school, job positon of the nutrition teacher, renovating kitchen and food distributing place. Questionnaires were collected from 240 sixth graders in the eight elementary schools in Gyeonggi province from August to September 2014. Excluding inadequate questionnaires, 208 were analyzed. PLS (Partial Least Square) and bootstrap t-tests were conducted for this study. The results showed food habits affected satisfaction directly (p<0.01). The perceived food quality of the school lunch service mediated this relationship in part (p<0.01). Moderating effects identified were gender (p<0.1), nutrition teacher’s position(p<0.05), and renovating kitchen (p<0.1), but not location of school or distributing place. The study revealed the importance of student food habits and perceived food quality, which had an influence on satisfaction. We make a distinction between the concepts of satisfaction and quality so as to improve student satisfaction. When it comes to offering education program about food habits, the schools with old-fashion kitchen is given priority to than renovating one.