Best practice examples presented at the "BuGA Weltacker"
How can school catering be organized in a fairer and more regional way? What can local authorities do for sustainable school catering? What does all this have to do with global justice? These were the questions addressed at the panel discussion "Best practice examples for sustainable school catering" on June 21 on the grounds of the World Acre of the Federal Horticultural Show in Mannheim. Guests were Dirk Grunert (Mayor of the City of Mannheim), Anja Köchermann (City of Göttingen), Kerstin Siebenmorgen (City of Freiburg) and Regina Jaumann (Landeszentrum für Ernährung Baden-Württemberg). Susanne Kammer (Eine-Welt-Forum Mannheim) and Dr. Birgit Hoinle (University of Hohenheim) organized the event and provided the content.
Around 20 participants were in the audience on this hot afternoon to learn more about the approaches to action for sustainable school meals in the various cities. After a content-related introduction and overview of the services offered by the State Center for Nutrition, Dirk Grunert reported on the efforts and challenges in the city of Mannheim to make school meals there more sustainable. Following a city council resolution, for example, it has been possible to increase the organic content to 40%, introduce fair trade product groups and reduce convenience products. He was also interested in the model of a communal company in which a municipal business supplies daycare centers and schools with fresh food in its own canteen kitchens. The city of Göttingen is an example of this. The "Göttinger Modell" of communal daycare and school catering, whose concept was presented by Anja Köchermann at the event, has been implemented there for over ten years. The city of Freiburg is an example of how regionality and accompanying educational measures can be promoted when all stakeholders (city, school social work, nutrition council) pull together. As Kerstin Siebenmorgen reported, the catering companies offer educational activities such as canteen and farm visits for school classes, giving children the opportunity to experience firsthand how food gets from the fields and kitchens to their plates. In the discussion that followed, moderator Birgit Hoinle picked up on overarching themes and challenges with the panelists, such as measures to combat food waste, working conditions in canteens and how to get children and young people excited about the issue.
The report of the BuGa is available here.
