Children's Weekday Lunches: 93.5% are 'Homemade Bento,' 65.2% of Parents Say 'Making Lunch Every Day is Tough'

The Reality of School Lunches Revealed by PECOFREE Survey

PECOFREE Corporation, which operates the school lunch service "PECOFREE," conducted a survey targeting families attending schools that utilize its service, focusing on children's eating habits and food education at home.

When asked about children's weekday lunches, the highest response was "making homemade bentos for them" at 93.5%. Since approximately 90% of the respondents were parents of junior and senior high school students, it became clear that lunch, especially in junior and senior high schools without school lunch programs, heavily relies on families preparing bentos.

Furthermore, 65.2% of parents responded that "making bentos every day is tough," highlighting the current situation where school lunches are sustained by the burden on families.

While the strong belief that "it is desirable to prepare homemade bentos" persists, the reality is that many parents feel burdened.

Schools Without School Lunch Programs Tend to Leave Lunch Up to Families

In Japan's school system, public elementary and junior high schools have established school lunch programs, but many high schools and private elementary and junior high schools do not.

Therefore, students' lunches often depend on homemade bentos or meals purchased individually, and the system for schools to provide lunch is limited.

In this survey, when asked about how children's weekday lunches are prepared, the results were:

- Making homemade bentos for them: 93.5% - Purchasing from convenience stores for them: 4.1% - Using the school cafeteria: 4.1%

*Multiple answers allowed

This result clearly showed that families bear the majority of school lunches.

"Making Bentos Every Day is Tough" 65.2%

When parents were asked about their concerns regarding children's weekday lunches, many responded with:

- Making bentos every day is tough: 65.2% - Can't think of variations for meals: 55.7% - Worried about nutritional balance: 51.7%

This indicates that lunch preparation is a significant burden for parents.

With the increase in dual-income households, the difficulty of solely supporting children's eating habits at home is becoming apparent.

Against this background, family eating habits are no longer solely dependent on homemade meals; changes are also being seen in incorporating external services and prepared foods (chushoku).

Towards a New System to Support Children's Eating Habits

This survey revealed that children's eating habits are currently largely supported by the efforts and burdens of parents.

PECOFREE aims to build a new lunch infrastructure that supports children's eating environments while alleviating the burden on parents by providing a system where lunch can be ordered and received at school.

In schools with high utilization rates among those introduced to the service, approximately 77% of families registered and use the service, indicating that utilization is progressing in response to the need for parental burden reduction.

Currently, PECOFREE is used in 2,300 facilities across 42 prefectures nationwide.

The detailed data of this survey is summarized in a research report available for download from the official PECOFREE website.

▼Download the research report here

https://pecofree.jp/whitepaper/research

Survey Outline

Survey Name: Survey on "Children's Eating Habits and Food Education at Home" Survey Period: September 9, 2025 (Tuesday) - April 17, 2026 (Friday) Survey Method: Internet survey Target Audience: Parents of children attending schools (elementary, junior high, high schools) introduced to PECOFREE Number of Respondents: 2,195 people Breakdown of Respondents: Elementary school 7%, Junior high and high school 93% Survey Source: PECOFREE Corporation

Company Profile

Company Name: PECOFREE Corporation Established: February 2021 Representative: Tatsuo Kawanami Location: Lune Ayla, 1-28-1 Shiobara, Minami-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture Business Activities: Development and operation of a lunch provision platform for schools and after-school care Website: https://pecofree.jp

Contact for this matter

PECOFREE Corporation E-mail: [email protected] Inquiry Form: https://pecofree.jp/contact