Good Food at School: Enhancing School Lunches and Food Education to Promote Children's Health through Quality Menus and Local Partnerships.
Our goal is to enhance the quality of school meals by engaging various stakeholders, establishing more partnerships with local producers, and increasing access to healthy food options while reducing the availability of unhealthy ones. Another aspect of our initiative is to foster a food culture at school, by collaborating with teachers and local stakeholders to develop innovative projects and initiatives.
Video in French with English subtitles
Who we would like to support
The primary group we are looking to support consists of all children who eat daily in our 36 canteens, which amounts to around 3500 to 5000 children per day. It's worth noting that some children belong to families with very low incomes and are facing various challenges, such as social, economic, and cultural difficulties.
The secondary group we aim to support are the canteen staff/teachers/stakeholders who play a crucial role at promoting “Good food at school”. We also intend to reach out to parents of the children, particularly those who lack knowledge and practices regarding healthier and more sustainable diets.
What’s coming next
While we await the results of our on-going survey, we plan to develop proposals to promote food culture in schools. This will involve initiatives such as collaborating with existing our our pedagogical kitchen, providing pedagogical material to the canteen staff, arranging meetings between local producers who are working with the central kitchen, using lunch time to address issues of food waste. Additionally, we will continue to work on improving the quality of our public procurement and promoting healthier, more sustainable and more balanced plant-based diets.
Get to know the region
Avignon is situated in the southeastern part of France and has a population of 92 000 inhabitants.
It is located in a Mediterranean region and benefits from a diverse range of agricultural produce such as fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. The city, which dates back to the Middle Ages, has a historic landmark in the form of the Popes Palace, which is a testament to its rich religious history. Despite the abundance of agricultural resources, access to fresh and healthy food remains a challenge in Avignon due to the high poverty rate, which is around 21%. As a result, many people in the city face difficulties in accessing adequate food.
Local Food Challenges
Our challenge is to impart practical knowledge to children regarding good nutrition in order to combat malnutrition, illnesses and obesity. Additionally, we face the challenge of addressing parents' lack of knowledge about food and generating interest in the subject. Additionally, we face the challenge of addressing parents' lack of knowledge about food and generating interest in the subject. Through FEAST weAdditionally, we face the challenge of addressing parents' lack of knowledge about food and generating interest in the subject. Through FEAST weAdditionally, we face the challenge of addressing parents' lack of knowledge about food and generating interest in the subject. Through FEAST we aim to empower children and parenchildren and parenchildren and parentsss with the ability to make informed choices about their diets to promote diets to promote diets to promote health and prevent disease and prevent disease and prevent disease.
Living Lab Activities
We will focus on two areas:
- Central kitchen technical level: we will improve our public procurement by selecting more raw, fresh and seasonal products while avoiding processed food.
- School level:
Within the canteens: we will use lunch time to create opportunities to reduce food waste and raise awareness about food products (giving relevant information about the menus, for instance).
Within school time: We will work with teachers and relevant stakeholders to develop material regarding healthier and more sustainable food.