Those responsible for school canteen They realized that something was wrong when they learned about the sugar packet trafficking that ran among the students. “We found out that a grandmother gave a few to her grandson before going to class, so that he in turn would distribute them to his friends for their midday yogurt,” Carles Xifra now says, half amused and annoyed, deputy general director of Fundesplai, a social entity that manages more than 250 food services in educational centers in Catalonia. “Apparently the kids found the yogurt too acidic.” The solution, Xifra explains, was talk to the yogurt supplier “and ask him to remove the acidity.” The alternative ended up being a success… And there was no need for more clandestine sugar packets at school.
That is one of the advantages for school cafeteria managers of working with proximity producers“an option with which we have achieved, among other things, reduce emissions by 40% in every dish that is served,” highlights the head of Fundesplai. The organization, which delivers six million meals each year to educational centers, bases its food project on five axes, which are detailed in an exhibition at its headquarters in El Prat de Llobregat. : the fight against food wastethe reduction of use of plasticsthe products of kilometer zero and seasonal, the suppression of ultra-processed foods and the reduction in the amount of red meat.
It is not to reduce costs
This Friday, the students of Turó Blau public schoolin the Sant Andreu neighborhood of Barcelona, have had a clear example of this type of sustainable and healthy menus: lentils with sweet potato, chicken and seasonal fruit. “We don’t do it because legumes are cheaper than meat… That’s not the philosophy, although some families are reluctant and reproach us for that,” says Xifra. “We do it because intensive livestock farming, not the one that grazes in the Pyrenees mountains, but the one that is raised on farms, generates more gas emissions causes climate change than all cars, trucks and planes combined,” he says.
“And to obtain 100 grams of animal protein, you need 20 times more farmland than to obtain 100 grams of vegetable protein,” he continues, while stopping in front of one of the panels in the Fundesplai exhibition, which has extended its opening period. to the public until June 2024. That is why it is so fundamental, he adds, “that boys and girls become aware from a very young age of how necessary the dietary change is“.
The school cafeteria plays a determining role in this evolution. Not only because students eat healthy foods once a day, something that in cases of vulnerable contexts is not always guaranteed, “but because pedagogy is also done through minors for the rest of the families,” indicates the expert.
Hungry children
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Apart from knowing what to eat, another of the lessons learned from the school cafeteria “must be how much to eat“says the deputy general director of the foundation. Thus, for example, in the case of salad, the minor can choose between having a portion of one tong or two on their plate. “And if they are older, They can arrive, let’s put four tongs, but they will be the ones to choose, being aware of whether they like that dish a lot or a little and how hungry they are.
Be that as it may, for those parents who claim that their children come home starving after having stayed in the dining room, they should know that the rations are also regulated in a quantity table prepared by the Public Health Agency of Catalonia.