As the bell for lunch rang, students at Wat Ratchanatda School raced to the canteen for their freshly prepared food.
"One of my favourite dishes the school provides is phad gaprao gai [stir-fried chicken with basil leaves]," said Sirinthip Sirmora, a Prathom 5 student, while enjoying her meal with her friends.
"I like hot and spicy food. I do not like noodles and vegetable-heavy dishes. They are boring."
Another student, Patcharaporn Noikaikam, who is studying in Prathom 3 likes laab moo (spicy minced pork salad) and fried chicken the most.
"I like school meals -- they taste good. But, sometimes the menus are limited," she said.
Patcharaporn wants the school to add more variety to the menu. "Foreign dishes like ramen, spaghetti or sushi should be great."
Despite a lack of culinary variety, both gave their school lunches eight out of 10 for satisfaction.
Thanita Praevanich, deputy head of the Department of Education under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) said each school was allowed to create its own menu for its students instead of complying with a set one laid down by authorities.
"We have officials who are knowledgeable in child health and nutrition and can give advice to teachers and cooks," she said.
No schools have sought advice on food matters from the department so far. School lunches offered to students are randomly checked every year for quality.
Ms Thanita said the school lunch programme was initiated by the BMA, which allocates a budget to schools under its administration.
Piyanuch Thoobtianratana, acting principal of Wat Ratchanatda School, said a team of teachers was assigned to work on meal plans to ensure they are nutritional, hygienic and safe.
The team is also responsible for inspecting cooking methods by school cooks to ensure, from choosing the right utensils to wearing the right attire, the cooking process is carried out according to proper regulations.
"It is not easy to eat well when we are on a tight budget," Ms Piyanuch said.
Located on Mahachai Road, the BMA-supervised Wat Ratchanatda provides education from kindergarten to primary level for 88 students.
Cooks are required to wear protective clothing when cooking and cleaning as it helps them prepare food hygienically and prevent foreign objects from falling into the food, she explained.
"The cook needs to wear a clean apron, a hat and gloves and more. It helps prevent her from injury and also protect students against food poisoning," Ms Piyanuch said.
Besides being responsible for preparing breakfast and lunch for students, cooks keep the kitchen clean and sometimes cleaning food containers used by students.
"We encourage our students to clean the containers and utensils they have used. We want them to be responsible. The cook will check later whether the containers are clean. If not, the cook must clean them again," Ms Piyanuch said.
She said the team tries to formulate meals based on ingredients that can be bought from markets, to save money. She added that teachers usually plan meals one month in advance to ensure students get a varied and healthy diet.
"We check our stock and buy additional cooking materials, so we don't end up wasting food or our budget," she said.
The regular menu includes dried pork, stir fried vegetables, pork and omelette, served with steamed rice.
A lunch set usually comes with two dishes and rice, plus dessert. Other dishes include kai pa-lo (hard-boiled eggs and pork in brown sweet sauce), tom kha gai (chicken soup with coconut milk), stir fried vermicelli with pork, clear soup with bean curd and minced pork, fried rice with sausage, and fried chicken. A choice of dessert or seasonal fruit is also included in the set.
"We have to stay creative. We sometimes replace the main dish with noodles like a bowl of noodle soup, phad see-ew moo (stir-fried noodle with pork), radna moo (stir-fried noodles with pork topped with thick gravy)," Ms Piyanuch said.
The acting principal said her school also encourages students to eat sensibly to help them stay fit and healthy and save the school money.
"We encourage our students to have regular-sized portions of food to ensure the right portion for each of them and so we don't waste food," she said.
Students will have lunch in small groups. A group member will be responsible for serving other members who say how much food they want to eat.
Ms Piyanuch said a survey is carried out to assess student satisfaction on school meals each semester.
Students in Prathom 3 were chosen to participate in the survey for their significant language and communication skills, she added.
A survey showed students liked stir-fried chicken and basil leaves, fried rice with Chinese sweet sausage and deep-fried pork.
Students didn't enjoy dishes loaded with vegetables, particularly aubergine.
"Students do not always want to eat vegetables. We try to choose child-friendly vegetables like cabbage, carrot, pumpkin for them and explain how vegetables are important to a healthy diet," said Ms Piyanuch.
Breakfast is offered from 7am-7.45pm and from 10.30am to noon. Around 90% of students have breakfast provided by the school.
According to Punnee Ponprachanuvut, a researcher from Mahidol University's Institute of Nutrition, young children need three meals and at least two snacks a day.
School meals are important for schoolchildren. It makes up a third to one half of a child's nutritional intake for the day.
"Some children do not have breakfast at school and may not have snacks until they get home. Lunch is the only meal that will give them the energy they need to do activities throughout the day," Ms Punnee said.
According to her, a basic school meal should have a main course, fruit or dessert and milk. She cited a main course that includes a portion of rice, stir fried pumpkin with egg, beans in syrup and skimmed milk.
School meals must be healthy and balanced. And menus should be changed regularly to keep students interested and to maintain a balanced diet.
One tablespoon of cooked protein such as fish, chicken and pork offers the equivalent amount of nutritional value as half a tube of bean tofu, or one quarter of an extra-firm block of bean tofu, she said.
Cost of catering to a child’s daily needs
As of 2016, there were about 290,000 students in 437 schools under the BMA, 90% of which were primary schools and the rest junior high and high schools.
Previously, students in schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) had been allocated 13 baht by central government for their lunch.
But those in schools managed by the BMA received seven baht more from City Hall, making their lunch a little better at 20 baht.
However, in 2014, the central government set the subsidy for all school lunches at 20 baht.
Each morning, students in Obec schools are provided with a small carton of school milk for breakfast.
Those in BMA schools are provided both milk and a 10-baht meal.