Abstract
Food and nutrition education interventions in Mexican basic education schools have focused on conveying information and targeting children, but they overlook determinants of learning eating habits, such as compliance with or violation of official regulations on food offerings in schools. This article describes the results of an educational intervention aimed at promoting regulatory compliance favorable to food and nutrition education in four public basic education schools in the central region of Mexico, directed at teachers and cooks who shape the school food environment on a daily basis. A comparative case study was conducted from 2021 to 2023 through a series of thematic workshops with a constructivist approach, adapted to a previously reported diagnosis, and addressed to a total of 38 teachers, 8 cooks, and 105 occasional attendees (students' family members). The impact of the workshops was evaluated through an ex-post analysis of weaknesses, threats, strengths, and opportunities, as well as hypothesis testing on changes in the daily school menus offered. The consistent attendance of the same participants in the workshop sessions contributed to significant improvements in the nutritional quality of the menus offered, and the strategies generated in the workshops by teachers and cooks to intervene daily in their environment proved to be the most effective. Workshops with constantly changing attendees involved more members of the community but had less impact on regulatory compliance favorable to food and nutrition education.