Students' perceptions of school meals: a challenge for schools, school‐meal providers, and policymakers

School‐meal programmes in Germany are of growing public interest and are gaining in importance, not least because of their ability to influence pupils' eating habits and thereby establish sustainable nutrition patterns. It is in this context that it is important to understand adolescents' perceptions of school food in order to enable policymakers, schools and school‐meal providers to fulfil their nutritional requirements. Therefore, the aim of this study is to create a theoretical model to measure students' satisfaction and to identify the underlying dimensions. The results show that the main predictors of customer satisfaction are service, quality of food and atmosphere, which underlines and reinforces the importance of service quality. Other factors, such as canteen organisation and the foods' nutritional value, influence satisfaction indirectly. Finally, a higher satisfaction level leads to a higher willingness to participate in school‐meal programmes.