{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T15:03:07Z","timestamp":1784818987024,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784764800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Nutr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>School meals are increasingly recognized as instruments for supporting child nutrition, educational participation, and social protection. However, limited attention has been given to how the absence of an institutionalized national program can be distinguished from implementation failure, low policy priority, or fragmented provision. This study examines the institutional organization of school food provision in T\u00fcrkiye.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A structured narrative review was combined with qualitative policy document analysis. Epidemiological studies, national institutional reports, legislative and regulatory documents, international guidelines, and comparative program evidence were reviewed. Policy documents were assessed across five dimensions: legal and institutional commitment, program coverage and entitlement, financing, implementation responsibility and continuity, and monitoring and accountability.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The reviewed evidence indicates that nutritional vulnerability among children and adolescents in T\u00fcrkiye includes excess body weight, irregular meal patterns, selected micronutrient-related concerns, and socioeconomic conditions that may constrain access to adequate food. The school food system combines household provision, regulated commercial food services, and publicly financed meals for particular eligible groups. Although these arrangements demonstrate that public intervention exists, the document analysis did not identify a comprehensive national program combining clearly defined entitlement, recurrent financing, designated implementation responsibility, continuity, nutritional standards, and integrated monitoring. The Turkish case is therefore characterized by policy absence at the level of institutionalized national program provision, coexisting with regulatory, targeted, and fragmented interventions.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The study does not establish a causal relationship between this institutional configuration and specific nutritional or educational outcomes. It proposes a state-guaranteed, multi-level governance framework combining national financing and standards with decentralized implementation, professional nutritional oversight, participatory monitoring, and independent evaluation. The study contributes an operational framework for analyzing policy absence as an observable institutional condition rather than as the complete absence of public action.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnut.2026.1852549","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T14:25:21Z","timestamp":1784816721000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Policy absence and school meal provision in T\u00fcrkiye: a structured narrative review and policy analysis"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Seval Bircan","family":"Y\u0131lmaz Y\u0131ld\u0131z","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Strategic Education and Bologna Coordination, \u00c7anakkale Onsekiz Mart University","place":["\u00c7anakkale, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","volume-title":"Optimizing Education Outcomes: High-Return Investments in School Health for Increased Participation and Learning","author":"Bundy","year":"2018"},{"key":"B2","unstructured":"State of school feeding worldwide 2025: Investing in child nutrition and social protection\n          \n          2025"},{"key":"B3","unstructured":"Global guidelines for healthy school food environments: Promoting direct provision and nutritional accountability\n          \n          2025"},{"key":"B4","volume-title":"Analysing Policy: What's The Problem Represented To Be?","author":"Bacchi","year":"2009"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.4324\/9780203803301","volume-title":"Global Education Inc.: New Policy Networks and the Neo-Liberal Imaginary","author":"Ball","year":"2012"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctt1vz494j","volume-title":"Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression","author":"Bhattacharya","year":"2017"},{"key":"B7","volume-title":"The state of the world's children 2021: on my mind \u2013 Promoting, protecting and caring for children's mental health","year":"2021"},{"key":"B8","volume-title":"The production of space","author":"Lefebvre","year":"1991"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.18261\/ntfe.22.5.167","article-title":"Are Polish school meals healthy and sustainable: Theory and practice","author":"Jeruszka-Bielak","year":"2024","journal-title":"Norsk Tidsskr Ern\u00e6r."},{"key":"B10","unstructured":"Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) T\u00fcrkiye: D\u00f6rd\u00fcnc\u00fc tur verileri (2016)\n          \n          2022"},{"key":"B11","unstructured":"T\u00fcrkiye Beslenme ve Saglik Ara\u015ftirmasi (TBSA) 2017\n          \n          2019"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"425","DOI":"10.3389\/fnhum.2013.00425","article-title":"The effects of breakfast on behavior and academic performance in children and adolescents","volume":"7","author":"Adolphus","year":"2013","journal-title":"Front Hum Neurosci."},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"743","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jada.2005.02.007","article-title":"Breakfast habits, nutritional status, body weight, and academic performance in children and adolescents","volume":"105","author":"Rampersaud","year":"2005","journal-title":"J Am Diet Assoc."},{"key":"B14","author":"Turkish","year":"2026","journal-title":"Statistics on children"},{"key":"B15","author":"Turkish","year":"2026","journal-title":"Consumer price index, December"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1107","DOI":"10.1093\/ajcn\/87.5.1107","article-title":"Does social class predict diet quality?","volume":"87","author":"Darmon","year":"2008","journal-title":"Am J Clin Nutr."},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4051","DOI":"10.7189\/jogh.11.04051","article-title":"Impacts of school feeding on educational and health outcomes of school-age children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"11","author":"Wang","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Glob Health."},{"key":"B18","unstructured":"The state of school feeding worldwide 2020\n          \n          2020"},{"key":"B19","unstructured":"WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI): Report on the fifth round of data collection, 2018-2020\n          \n          2021"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e093244","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2024-093244","article-title":"Impacts of global school feeding programs on children's health and wellbeing outcomes: a scoping review","volume":"15","author":"Locke","year":"2025","journal-title":"BMJ Open."},{"key":"B21","unstructured":"Lei No. 11.947, de 16 de junho de 2009. 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