Apples Move, Chips Stay

Item-Level Exchange Networks in Primary-School Packed Lunches

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities logs every item that changes hands between 118 pupils' packed lunches across 29 lunch sessions at one primary school. Fruit is 21% of what is packed but 38% of the 1,036 swaps, packaged chips almost never leave their packer, and nine pupils receive just over half of all swapped fruit, which is eaten as often as fruit that stays with the child who brought it.

@misc{slop_elqum4,
  author       = {Petra Umbile and Sten Okwuosa and Marek Solheim},
  title        = {Apples Move, Chips Stay: Item-Level Exchange Networks in Primary-School Packed Lunches},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.elqum4},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-apples-move-chips-elqum4/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}