Pupils engaged in preparing climate smart food. © Roosa Ritola
One fifth of the Finnish consumption-based climate impact originates from food and eating. One way to reduce the impact is to pay attention to catering services at schools. In Finland circa 900 000 pupils enjoy a free meal during the school day.
School meals can play an important role in food education of children. Through school meals, there is a chance to introduce new foods and change the food culture and eating habits young people.
Engaging pupils themselves in tasting and developing new climate friendly foods is a key in making them acceptable. Just Food is working with two school catering services in testing ways to involve the pupils in designing climate friendly menus.
The Brochure School Meals 2030 – How to halve the Climate Impact presents the practical experiments carried out in an elementary school in Central Finland. It also includes a sample six-week menu and four recipes of plant-based meals. The menu fulfils the requirements for nutritional quality and its’ costs remain at an acceptable level.
More information
- Researcher Teea Kortetmäki, University of Jyväskylä, firstname.lastname@jyu.fi