Guest attendance data from 34 Swedish pre-schools and primary schools

This data article describes 34 datasets, compiled into one table, describing guest attendance at lunch meal servings in Swedish public schools and preschools. Fifteen of the schools and all 16 of the preschools covered belong to one municipality, while the remaining three schools belong to two other municipalities, all located in central Sweden. Data on number of plates was used as a proxy of the number of guests eating lunch. Number of used plates was recorded from late August 2010 to early June 2020, i.e. covering the period both before and during the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, so that making possible to evaluate changes in guest attendance during the pandemic. Since these were real data, all data elements pertaining to exact canteens or staff identity have been removed. There is a scarcity of real business data for scientific and educational purposes, so these datasets can play an important role in research and education within catering management, consumption pattern analysis, machine learning, data mining and other fields.