In the past ten years, children's health has become qualitatively worse. According to the data from numerous studies in Russia, only 10 percent of the upper-grade students in secondary school can be considered healthy. At the same time, half the students have morphofunctional impairments, and 40 percent suffer from chronic pathology. In the past few years, diseases that affect the digestive organs have increased by forty times, due to the poor organization of students' food services and the psychoemotional tension that stems from living conditions and school life. To evaluate the quality of food services the authors conducted a questionnaire survey among 1,150 students enrolled in secondary general education schools between the ages of eleven and seventeen, seventy parents, and forty-five experts (school principals, vice principals, dietitian nurses, medical nurses, heads of production, technologists, and cooks). Questionnaires were drawn up for each group of respondents; 80 percent consisted of closed questions. The surveys were carried out in the schools of cities and communities characterized by differing conditions of school food service operation: (1) "Group A"--a city with a population of up to 1 million (Vladivostok); (2) "Group B"--a city with a population of 100,000 to 500,000 (Artem); and (3) "Group C"--a raion with a population of up to 100,000 (Kavalerovskii raion). It was found that in sixty-eight out of the 655 schools in the krai, no food services were organized, for various reasons. In the case of some, there were no food service facilities; other schools did not have the necessary equipment to prepare the food. In schools where food services have been organized (at least formally) there are a number of fundamental violations. It was found in the survey that only 26 percent of the cafeterias are serving products made in factories that produce items for school food services. The authors' analysis and interpretation of the survey results enable them to discuss the formulation and implementation of a conception of school food services in the krai. This will make it possible to ensure the accomplishment of a number of tasks, chief among which must be the formulation of a normative legal base in the sphere of the organization and management of food services in the schools; the organization of the training and upgrading of qualifications of specialists in school food services; provision of the appropriate material and technical base; and monitoring of the organization and quality of school food services. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.) [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]