Many countries around the world provide school lunches, but Sweden is unique in offering them for free. In Sweden hot school lunches are provided to all students ages 6 to 16 and most students ages 16 to 19, five days a week. School meals are considered to be important for many reasons such as, the students health, social well-being and ability to learn. School meals are also an important tool in evening out socio-economic differences in health. National efforts to provide free school meals started in the early 1900s, and comprised the majority of Swedish schoolchildren in the 70s. Since 2011 the Swedish School Law stipulates that school lunches must be nutritious. The national guidelines for school meals were published in 2015 and revised in 2019 by the Swedish Food Agency and are based on the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations. The Nordic Nutrition Recommendations provide reference values for the intake of nutrients which, based on current scientific knowledge, are adequate for the development and optimal function of the human body and reduce the risk of certain diet-related diseases.