Healthy Eating Education: the Role of School Meals in Late-1950s Italy and the Case of Piacenza

School canteens, established in Italy in the late nineteenth century to encourage children living in precarious conditions to attend the compulsory school, received great attention after World War II, especially thanks to the intense work carried out by the International Aid Administration (IAA). The economic subsidies mostly came both from the United Nations and some foreign governments, particularly from the United States of America. In June 1955 an agreement was signed with the USA, according to which part of the American food surplus would find a suitable form of use in Italy. In the following three years, large quantities of food from overseas were allocated by IAA to poor children assisted in the school canteens, but also in kindergartens, residential institutions, and colonies. The Italian authorities – as stipulated in the agreement – were responsible of the management costs of the plan and its publicity, so that the American merit was widely known. The food distribution was calibrated according to the geographical areas and provided for various and complementary products, the rational use of which was facilitated by specifically defined weekly meal planners. A balanced school meal was able to partially compensate for the important nutritional deficiencies of the Italian childhood of the time, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. The attention towards students’ well-being was also related to their nutrition education. Using specific educational material, students became familiar with the complex organization that allowed the canteens functioning, but above all they learned the value of a proper nutrition and an adequate conduct during the mealtimes. In this process, teachers – whose involvement was essential – were appointed to hold specific lessons on healthy food, and for this reason they also became recipients of several initiatives. The essay intends to present how the IAA plan took shape in the late 1950s, studying the educational material used in the Italian primary schools. In addition to reporting on the national situation, an in-depth analysis will be conducted on the experience of the school canteens in Piacenza, a city in northern Italy. The analysis of unpublished document from the City Archive, including school notebooks, filmstrips, brochures and posters, will bring to light how the IAA initiatives were realized at a local level, and, above all, what was the reaction of students and teachers.