School lunch and sustainability-food education for sustainability (original) (raw)
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Sustainability and local food procurement: a case study of Finnish public catering
Purpose -The aim of the paper is to present how sustainability as a concept supports the use of locally-sourced food in public catering, and the issues that arise from that policy objective and their implications for suppliers and purchasers. Design/methodology/approach -First, the paper explains the characteristics of local food chains and the concept of sustainability based on a literature review. It then outlines the stages of the food procurement process in public food catering in Finland, focussing on the delivery of potatoes from a local producer to a public caterer providing school meals. The case study identifies the dimensions of sustainability. Findings -First, the criteria defining sustainability remain unclear. Second, to overcome the cost disadvantages brought about by its small-scale production and high delivery costs, locally-sourced food should add some extra value. Short food supply chains have advantages over long ones, however, they are not sustainable per se.
How a Transformation towards Sustainable Community Catering Can Succeed
Sustainability, 2019
Community catering or to use another common term especially in the American literature institutional foodservice plays a central role in changing our food system towards sustainability. Community catering establishments can bring about changes in this context at various levels. Hence, in the context of menu planning, they have a direct influence on the level of meat consumption. Indirectly, however, they can also support changes in eating habits by offering the guest an equally attractive alternative, thus giving him or her a sense of how tasty a low-meat cuisine can be. On the basis of this experience, the consumer may possibly change in turn his or her own purchasing behavior and menu planning at home. With the increasing importance of catering for day-care centers and schools, community catering also has a considerable influence on the nutritional status as well as on the development of people’s individual diet and the later eating habits of young people. By understanding socio-t...
Endorsing Sustainable Food Consumption: Prospects from Public Catering
Journal of Consumer Policy, 2012
The aim of this article was to analyse an attempt to promote sustainable consumption by shaping the conditions for consumption. In particular, the focus lies on sustainable public catering as an approach to shaping both the supply of and demand for sustainable meals. In order to capture the processes of governing consumption, the way is traced in which rationalities (ways of thinking and calculating), technologies (means and instruments), visibilities (concrete manifestations), and identities (types of agents assumed) related to a policy intervention for sustainable public catering are interpreted and recreated by three main groups of actors involved: policy makers, catering professionals, and consumers. This analysis highlights the active role of practitioners in realizing policies for sustainable consumption. It has implications for policy makers and analysts: Reflexive policies should heed to actors' unfolding interpretations as they can take the policy process in different directions.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2022
Increasingly, policymakers are setting ambitious goals for sustainability in public procurement, integrated across different pillars. Such ambitions are apparent in public catering services, where procurement models have been shifting towards greater localisation of supply chains and purchasing of more organically grown food. To date however, few studies have examined empirically what the impacts of different procurement models are across these multiple pillars of sustainability. This research aimed to fill the gap, by measuring and comparing the environmental, economic and nutritional outcomes of different models of school meals procurement. Case studies were undertaken of ten primary school meals services in five European countries, capturing different procurement model types. Results showed carbon emissions ranged from 0.95 kgs CO 2 e per meal in the lowest case to 2.41 kgs CO 2 e in the highest case, with adoption of low carbon food waste disposal methods and reduction of the amount of ruminant meat in the menus being the most important actions for lowering emissions. In terms of economic impact, local economic multiplier ratios ranged from 1.59 to 2.46, and although the level of local food sourcing contributed to these ratios, the effect was eclipsed, in some cases, by investment in local catering staff. Meanwhile, implementation of a robust standards regime and improving canteen environment and supervision were the most important actions for nutritional quality and intake. The paper discusses the implications of the findings for integrated, sustainable models of food procurement.
Research Square (Research Square), 2022
Background: Adoption of more sustainable diets is necessary to preserve human and planetary health. The reach of the school meal system makes it an ideal setting to focus a food-related intervention towards more sustainable meals. The motivation to shift to more sustainable eating is increasing in the younger generation. However, there is currently limited insight into why and how these preferences develop and can be promoted. Aim: To explore barriers and facilitators to implementing sustainable school meals in the Swedish high school setting. Methods: This study employed a mixed inductive-deductive qualitative design. Interviews with high school students (n=16) and school kitchen staff (n=3) were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Data was rst analysed inductively using qualitative content analysis. Emerging barriers and facilitators were consequently mapped deductively onto the domains of the Consolidated Framework of Implementation Research (CFIR). Results: Ten barriers and seven facilitators to implementing more sustainable high school meals emerged. These belonged to two domains of the CFIR: individual characteristics of students and kitchen staff and inner setting factors such as school meal environment and relationships between stakeholders. Barriers included a low desirability toward vegetarian meals as well as lack of knowledge on the nutritional value of plant-based proteins among students. A barrier for the meal staff was that they were less inclined to prepare more plant-based meals which were perceived as less acceptable among students. Facilitators included a common interest in change towards sustainable meals and a good relationship between students and meal staff. Also, kitchen staff perceived that they have the knowledge and resources necessary to implement change. Conclusion: Prioritizing students' food preferences as well as their knowledge about food and sustainability is likely to be key, but possible not enough, to achieve successful implementation of sustainable school meals. Co-creation with consumers and providers could provide an important opportunity to reaching higher acceptability of new meals and thus avoiding food waste.
Healthcare
Ensuring safe meals with suitable hygienic-sanitary and nutritional features is an essential requirement to guarantee health in different settings. This study aims to evaluate the compliance of collective catering menus adopted in both school canteens and healthcare facilities in a regional area where specific guidelines have been issued, assessing many matters from food weight to single courses and from the use of wholegrain pasta and bread to the rotation of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Overall, 85 menus, edited by freelance professionals and endorsed by the Food Hygiene and Nutrition Service staff of the Local Health Authority, were assessed from 2018 to 2022, highlighting critical issues potentially attributable at a local level to the lack of complete knowledge of the existence of guidelines and official reference documents among nutrition professionals. Since the preliminary outcomes show non-compliance in both sectors investigated, it is essential to continue to strengthen ...
Food Sustainability and Gastronomy – Experience of the Nordic Countries
Journal of Environment and Health Science
Food sustainability and gastronomy in the Nordic countries have in recent years been combined in several different aspects. Initiatives from fine-dining professionals have been supported by the Nordic Ministerial Council and further developed over a number of years. The welfare model with and increased focus on democracy and equality as well as reduction of poverty is emphasized in the Nordic strategy for sustainable development, which also discusses issues of the environmental load from food production, issues of biodiversity and waste reduction. Attempts to combine food production and export with healthy and sustainable aspects have been emerging during the last decades in the Nordic Countries. Assessment tools for evaluating sustainability as well as nutritional quality have been developed. The New Nordic Cuisine Manifesto has served as a platform for several of the sustainability developments in the region from fine dining to public meals. Another important initiative is the EAT Initiative, which has significantly increased the debate on food sustainability on a global level, from a Nordic origin. Local and regional food systems can certainly be used as focus points for development of healthy, economically viable and sustainable diets. This is the case for the Mediterranean Diet as well as the New Nordic Diet.
Health and Sustainability in Public Meals—An Explorative Review
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
The world is facing a number of challenges related to food consumption. These are, on the one hand, health effects and, on the other hand, the environmental impact of food production. Radical changes are needed to achieve a sustainable and healthy food production and consumption. Public and institutional meals play a vital role in promoting health and sustainability, since they are responsible for a significant part of food consumption, as well as their “normative influence” on peoples’ food habits. The aim of this paper is to provide an explorative review of the scientific literature, focusing on European research including both concepts of health and sustainability in studies of public meals. Of >3000 papers, 20 were found to satisfy these criteria and were thus included in the review. The results showed that schools and hospitals are the most dominant arenas where both health and sustainability have been addressed. Three different approaches in combining health and sustainabil...