The purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics of school lunch ingredients in collaboration with urban agriculture and to examine the application of food education related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The survey was conducted at one public junior high school in Tokyo that has a contract with farmers and uses local products from the ward for school lunch. The survey method consisted of calculating the ratio of local products in the number of ingredients, weight, and cost of vegetables and potatoes, based on delivery slips for school lunch, and interviewing registered dietitian regarding the content of food education.

Of the 48 vegetables and potatoes used during the 2021 school year, the utilization rate of local products was 45.8% based on the number of ingredients, 15.4% on a weight basis, and 10.3% on a cost basis. Of the total amount of school lunches during the school year, 51.9% were made from local products. Local products included ingredients that are difficult to distribute in the market, such as traditional local vegetables and root vegetable leaves, as well as ingredients that are used frequently. Moreover, the food education program was an opportunity to build face-to-face relationships with farmers by introducing them in newsletters and inviting them as guest teachers, and to think about the relationship of food with the SDGs.

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate nutrition education materials to facilitate “access to food information” for children enrolled in elementary schools without a nutrition teacher.

We developed six posters on nutrition education: (1) Importance and methods of hand washing, (2) Table manners and how to hold chopsticks, (3) Ways to spend one’s summer vacation, (4) A balanced diet, (5) Food loss and SDGs [please define abbreviation], and (6) Tooth brushing and cavity prevention. Posters (2), (4), and (6) also included games. All posters were displayed in the hallway in front of the nurse’s office at C Elementary School in B City and at the children’s cafeteria in the same school district. The posters were displayed for one month until the end of October 2021. We distributed a handout to the children once a month that included the same content as the poster. Sixty-one children at C Elementary School were surveyed with a self-administered questionnaire to determine the degree of poster viewing and impressions from the poster.

Seventeen children indicated that they had viewed 1-3 posters, and 43 indicated that they had viewed 4-6 posters (p＝0.868). The poster that left the greatest impression on most respondents was poster (6) (37.3%). The percentages of those who played with the game elements of the posters were 57.1% for poster (2), 37.5% for poster (4), and 55.4% for poster (6). The percentage of those who read the handouts at least once was 55.7%. Children who viewed 4-6 posters showed no difference in their impressions of the posters, practiced playing with the posters more, and more often had conversations about the posters and tended to read the handouts than them who viewed 0-3 posters.

These findings suggested that displaying posters that are easy to understand visually and use real objects or models may improve children’s impression of the posters. Although causal relationships could not be examined because this was a cross-sectional study, there is a possibility that posters and newsletters can be used as nutrition education materials to promote access to food information that can help form desirable eating habits in elementary schools where no nutrition teachers are available.

In the future, we hope to help foster “access to food information” for children enrolled in elementary schools without a nutrition teacher by proactively informing the children about our posters and viewing correspondence.