A kitchen at the heart of a school–an investigation into school meals in the Republic of Ireland

Free school meals provide support to vulnerable families in the Republic of Ireland. Funding is allocated as part of an anti-poverty strategy. An investigation was carried out to discover if the school meal could be used to provide nutritious scratch-cooked food as well as providing opportunities for increased socialisation and pedagogy. Food affects students in a myriad of ways and schools are in a unique position to guide what and how young people eat. This article draws on data from an ethnographic study in an inner city Dublin school. The school recently had a scratch-cooking canteen embedded within it. Using a case study methodology, this paper investigates whether this type of canteen can lead to the school becoming a more food literate entity by building a scaffolding that can facilitate a greater knowledge of food throughout the school, increased interest in tasting new foods and spaces for socialisation over a meal.