STARTING POINT WHAT ABOUT YOUR CULTURE OF FOOD?

In order to know the food preferences of the students involved in the project, as well as the habits existing in their food-related families, we applied a questionnaire of 15 items, of which the first two refer to identification elements.

Out of the 200 students in the sample, the majority, 62.3% are female, and the remaining 37.7% male.

Most of the pupils in the sample 119 belong to the age group 16-18 years, 50 are over 18 years of age, and only 31 pupils are aged 14-16 years.

50.3% of all students prefer fruit and vegetable based menus, 19.6% prefer carbohydrates, 17.1% meat, fish and dairy products are the least represented.

Traditional foods are preferred by most students, 37.2%, while international food, fast food and modern foods have close proportions in the preference structure.

At school, students eat food “from home” (48.7% of the total) or "corner shop" (24.1%); only 13.1% eat “from the school cafeteria” (some schools, like in Romania, do not have a canteen), while 14.1% of students say they "do not eat at school".

83.1% of students eat home-made meals with their family, 27.1% of the total of 2-4 and only 11.6% less than 4 times.

Most of the students (41.7% of the total) take "occasional" lunch preparation or family dinner, 25.1% "often", 20.6% "very rarely" and only 12.6% of the total "very often".

When they go out to eat in the city, students prefer "Pizzeria" 67% of the total, 32.2% "fast food" and 18.8% "traditional restaurant". The other categories of restaurants have insignificant shares in the total of students interviewed.

The duration of meals in a school day varies:

• Between 2 minutes and 20 minutes for breakfast, with the highest frequency at 10; there are also cases with 0, probably the student does not eat in the morning or 2 minutes • 15 to 30 minutes for lunch, the highest at 20; there are cases with 50 minutes, but also 10 minutes • 20 to 40 minutes for dinner, with the highest frequency at 30; there are cases with 15 minutes, but also 45 minutes.

A traditional family meal lasts between 15 minutes and 4 hours, the highest frequency being at 2 hours; there is also a 20 minute version, but also a whole day.

Most students prefer to eat in the kitchen, 26.1% in the living room, 10.6% in front of the TV or computer and the rest in their own room.

For 48% of the students the most important meal of the day is breakfast, for 37.4% of the total lunch, and dinner is the most important meal of the day for the rest of 14.6%

Students serve dinner with 56.3% dinner, lunch and no meal at 13.6% each; 9.5% of all students serve all three meals together, and 7% breakfast.

Christmas is the favorite festive meal for 72.4% of students and the New Year for 11.6% of the total.

57.3% of students associate food, above all with entertainment, 28.6% with survival, and 13.1% of the total associate food with community sentiment. The association of food with stress has an insignificant share in total.