Increased school lunch packing due to pandemic
The coronavirus (COVID-19) era has seen a rise in the popularity of packed lunches, per a study by London-based global intelligence platform Streetbees. This year, there has been an approximate 10% rise in the quantity of packed lunches among students who have returned to traditional classroom settings. Consequently, there has been a rise in the consumption of pre-made snacks.
More than 1,200 parents from the US and the UK participated in the study. The Streetbees app is used by over 3.5 million users in 189 countries to share text, images, and videos. The study’s data came from posts made by parents with children under the age of eighteen in the United States and the United Kingdom on the app.
Parents who are worried about the possibility of contracting COVID-19 through food preparation report that they enjoy making their kids’ lunches because they have control over how healthful the meal is. This is in contrast to 55% of parents who are not concerned about the possibility of COVID-19 spreading through food. In the United States, 50% of parents expressed concern about the potential risk of COVID-19 that comes with eating.
36% of parents who were making lunches because they were worried about COVID-19 reported that they were purchasing more pre-packaged snacks, compared to 24% of parents who weren’t. Parents who purchase pre-packaged snacks for their children to eat after school are about one-third of the total.
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29% of the children in the study had returned full-time to traditional classrooms in the United States. Parents whose children attend virtual schools reported increasing their purchases of pre-packaged snacks by 33% in both countries, while parents whose children attend traditional schools reported a 25% increase in purchases.
Potato chips came in first place with 63% of the snacks consumed during the day, followed by crackers with 60% and cereal/protein bars with 53%. According to Streetbees, snack brands have the chance to highlight the nutritional value and long-lasting energy of their products, as well as the sustainability and hygienic aspects of their packaging.