The aim of this study was to examine awareness, issues, and solutions regarding provision of snacks during after-school care, through a questionnaire survey with 59 after-school facility teachers and 252 households using after-school care. The results were as follows. (1) Over 90% of respondents were positive about provision of snacks ; (2) It was recognized that the psychological functions of snack provision, such as providing a break or relieving hunger, were more important than the functions of nutrition and dietary education ; (3) Teachers raised nutrition/dietary education and social aspects as issues they recognized in the provision of snacks ; (4) Improved training for teachers on nutrition and hygiene management together with establishment of opportunities to make snacks with children were suggested as effective methods to resolve issues around the provision of snacks.

This study aimed to focus on tomato cultivation and examine whether preschoolers’ home gardening (hereafter referred to as home garden) experiences (i.e., the experience of eating tomatoes grown in their home garden) are related to a preference for vegetables and interests/concerns regarding food. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 448 mothers of preschoolers who had just started kindergarten, in May 2012 at six kindergartens in Sapporo. The question items included attributes, home garden experience, preference for tomatoes, eating tomatoes, and interests/concerns about food. Groups with and without the experience of home gardens were compared via a Fisher’s exact test. The results showed that significantly more preschoolers with home garden experience liked tomatoes (p=0.001), ate all their tomatoes (p<0.001), requested tomatoes as meals/snacks (p=0.004), and chose to help with meal preparation (p=0.043). Based on these results, it was suggested that the home garden experience of preschoolers who had just started kindergarten was related to their preference for tomatoes and interests/concerns regarding food.

The present survey aimed to examine the status of dietary education implemented by preschools in Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi Prefectures, as well as problems faced by them.

More than 50% of the preschools, particularly those in Fukushima Prefecture, continued to measure the concentrations of radioactive substances contained in food five years after the Great East Japan Earthquake or later. Although there was an increase (from 22.1 to 73.2%) in the rate of preschools that provide opportunities for “cultivation and harvest” as several years had passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, the rate of preschoolers living in the prefecture who experienced them was still markedly low. According to the results, 75.4% of the preschools had food in stock in the event of emergency situations, although there were significant differences among the three prefectures stricken by the earthquake : 59.5, 73.5, and 86.7% for Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi Prefectures, respectively.

The present study provides valuable knowledge to promote dietary education for children. Dietary education in early childhood is designed to help children develop appropriate and desired dietary and nutrition habits, and become good-natured persons who are healthy both physically and psychologically. Support should be provided to further facilitate such education.