SchoolFood4Change brings healthy and sustainable meals to EU schools

25 Mar 2024 --- The ongoing four-year EU-funded SchoolFood4Change (SF4C) project aims to address the concerning health trends linked to nutrition and food insecurity among school-age children in the EU. Implemented by the NGO network Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) Europe the project also emphasizes the importance of sustainably sourced food and the need for an EU-wide school meal policy.

“The SF4C’s Whole School Food Approach (WSFA) is a concept to cultivate a healthy and sustainable food culture in and around schools,” Amalia Ochoa, SF4C coordinator and head of Sustainable Food Systems at ICLEI Europe, tells Nutrition Insight.

“The approach touches on all aspects of a school’s operation, culture, policies and practices — including expanding the curriculum, recruiting school cooks and cooperating with community stakeholders, such as farmers, to encourage students to eat healthier long term.” 

The EU project works alongside 43 partners, directly impacting over 3,000 schools and 600,000 children across 12 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, France, Italy, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.

Healthier school meals
Ochoa explains that the SF4C project implements specific strategies to encourage children to embrace healthier meal options.

The food intake of EU children is often unhealthy, processed, high in sugar and fat. “Through the WSFA framework, SF4C partner schools draw on guidelines, learning experiences from other schools and exchange with peers and experts to develop their own methods to encourage children to eat healthy. These measures often have a playful character or take place outside the classroom. Activities range from breakfast experiments to taste testing new dishes for the school canteen or culinary evenings with pupils’ parents.” 

She explains that their framework emphasizes the importance of creating a “pleasant eating atmosphere” at school in order to encourage healthy eating among the children. “This can be supported by including school children in meal planning and offering playful food activities to improve food literacy such as cooking classes and competitions.”

The importance of healthy school meals stems from their straightforward link to childhood diet, obesity and health, says Ochoa. “School meals should be seen as an investment in the well-being of our children and the future. Like adults, children often consume food that offers insufficient nutrition, or that is unhealthy, processed, high in sugar and fat.” 

“The WSFA integrates educational initiatives on food and eating alongside school meals. The educational components reflect a commitment to empowering children with nutritional knowledge while acknowledging the integral role of education in fostering healthy eating habits in children, their families and in wider communities.”

She states that the project looks at the impact of school meals on children’s health at a scientific level, pointing to ongoing scientific research taking place at the University of Alcalá, Spain, which investigates how dietary changes in school menus can translate into improved nutritional behavior. 

“We expect to find higher quality diets in children taking part in the SF4C activities. Results suggest that it is crucial to prioritize preventative measures and promote sustainable eating habits at a young age to achieve long-term benefits.”

Addressing food security 
SF4C further aims to address nutritional inequalities across the EU, acknowledging that, for some children, the meal provided at school may be a primary or even a sole source of daily nutrition.

“The project consortium is building on the fact that schools are one of the few places where all children, regardless of their socio-economic, religious, cultural or geographical background, come together. This is why healthy school meals and food education at school contribute to more equal opportunities,” Ochoa comments.

She argues that school food programs have the potential to expose students to “nutritious, regional and delicious meals” from an early age. She adds that this exposure encourages students to carry the message of health and sustainability into their homes and communities. 

“If every child in every school were guaranteed one healthy lunch meal on every school day, this would not only be a major public health intervention but would reduce social inequalities and increase food security on a broad scale.” 

“The project consortium consists of 18 European local and regional governments which, in cooperation with their SF4C partner schools, tackle the issue of food insecurity among disadvantaged children.”

She points out that SF4C cities Viimsi and Tallinn (Estonia) and Umea and Malmö (Sweden) already provide universal free school meals. Other SF4C cities, like Nuremberg (Germany) and Vienna (Austria), have made this a political priority and aim to offer school meals free of charge in the near future.

Policy implications
Based on the project implementation so far, research and “ongoing policy discussions,” SF4C published its policy brief titled “Tackling inequality through healthy and sustainable school food.” 

SF4C works with small farmers and local food suppliers to improve childhood nutrition.The three key policy recommendations concern the provision of a healthy school meal across EU members, the introduction of the WSFA framework to all EU schools and the enhancement of integration into existing frameworks. 

“Firstly, provide support to EU member states in the provision of at least one healthy and sustainable school meal daily, accessible to all children (0–18 years), aligning with the EU San Sebastian Declaration on School Meals and drawing from the principles of the EU Child Guarantee,” Ochoa elaborates.

“Secondly, provide an enabling framework for the implementation of the WSFA in all schools in Europe.” 

 “Lastly, enhance the integration and alignment of international conventions and EU policies affecting school food, the right to healthy sustainable food and food education, thereby fostering collaboration and coherence for a common approach.” 

 Sustainability
Another important aspect of the EU Green Deal project is environmental sustainability, which it strives toward by working with small farmers and local food suppliers. 

“We are developing and implementing healthy and sustainable criteria for school food procurement. Through implementing requirements such as increasing the number of products sourced from small-scale and medium-sized businesses, we aim to strengthen urban-rural linkages,” Ochoa explains. 

She adds that other criteria for greater sustainability include reducing the number of intermediates to shorten food supply chains, procuring within a radius of 50 km of a city and sourcing local varieties of fruits and vegetables, which are typical of the region in question. 

“This way, transport costs are reduced, which has a positive effect on greenhouse gas emission reduction. In addition, local governments can directly influence the strengthening of small-scale farmers’ positions and the improvement of the resilience of regional food systems.”

She points out that SF4C schools also take part in “Farm-to-School Twinning” activities as part of the WSFA. “Bringing students to farms and farmers to schools is an excellent way for young people to gain practical experience and learn about where their food comes from.”

“There are different types of activities, for example, farm and shop visits, tastings, farmers coming into schools to talk about food production, canteen parties, cooking classes and talks about healthy diets,” Ochoa concludes. 

By Milana Nikolova