Food For Thought: A School Lunch Sampler

The Only Free School Lunch in Europe

Last week I discovered that Finland is the only European country to offer free school meals — a national program introduced in 1946. Understandably, it was meant to address postwar poverty and malnutrition, while the country was also managing the resettlement of thousands of refugees, both children and adults.

What’s remarkable is how Finland has kept the program universal and non-stigmatizing: it’s funded by both national and local taxes, but each municipality decides how to implement it. Some rely on school kitchens, while others use centralized ones  (but local) to maintain quality and control costs. Certain districts require local or organic products; others don’t — but all must provide a protein in a hot dish (fish, meat, or eggs), a salad or raw vegetables, whole-grain bread or crackers with a spread, buttermilk or low-fat milk, or juices, and fruit for dessert. Water is always included, never soda. 

Lunch is a 30-minute break followed by 15 minutes of recess. Teachers eat with their students in the canteen, as mealtime is considered part of a child’s education — a time for conversation, courtesy, and, one hopes, finishing your vegetables.

Lunch in the Land of Wine and Cheese

In France, school lunch time is much longer than in Finland – up to two hours, which includes recess. Some students will leave their school to have lunch at home, since it is a two-hour break. School lunches are set to be three courses, with a salad as a first course,  then a heated main course, followed usually by a cheese (this is a country where  hundreds of cheeses are produced) and either fruit or an occasional pastry for dessert. No sodas are allowed, and plenty of water is available at each table.

France famously served wine, beer and hard cider for children at school lunches until 1956, when the government banned alcohol for children under the age of 14. Children over the age of 14 were allowed to have alcohol with parental consent.  It was not until 1981 that France totally banned alcohol for students in schools.

Again, teachers eat with students in the cafeteria or cantine and, as in Finland, it is considered comme il faut for students to learn manners and hold conversations, as well as being removed from ultra processed foods. Lunch is not free, but it is subsidized by the national and local governments with families paying part of the cost based on their income – an obligatory form is filled out for your child to receive the subsidized  lunch. 

Japan’s Teamwork Approach

Japan may offer the most profound example of how lunch can shape social behavior. Meals are not free, but subsidized with a tiered payment system as is done in the US and many other countries. Meals are designed by a team of nutritionists and  prepared in either school or community kitchens.  Lunch is usually eaten in the classroom, where a rotating team of students dons aprons, caps, and masks to help portion, serve, and tidy up.

Before the meal begins, they announce the menu, including the ingredients, their origins, and nutritional benefits — imagine that over a U.S. school PA system. A typical lunch includes a protein (fish, chicken, or curry), rice or noodles, and soup, always with milk and fruit or a simple jelly for dessert. Japan’s schools do not have the mid-morning snack tradition, and students are expected to eat all that is served at lunch. From what I have read, it, they are quite hungry and this stipulation is easily obeyed. Also, alternative diets and allergies are not generally catered to in their school lunch program. Children who have them are usually obligated to bring their own bento box. 

The emphasis is on teamwork, respect, and gratitude for food. Teachers eat the same meal with their students, making lunchtime a teachable moment about nutrition, sustainability, and community.

Free Lunch and Local Farm Support

Brazil, on the other hand, offers universal free lunches to every student in public schools (and some non-profit private ones) — a program first launched in 1956 to combat hunger and keep children in school. It now feeds more than 40 million students across nearly 6,000 municipalities.The Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar, or PNAE recently has encouraged the use of “waste” such as leaves from root vegetables, and fruit and vegetable peelings to be incorporated into stocks, and purées. 

Today’s version is deeply connected to local agriculture: 30% of ingredients must come from small family farms.  Nutritionists ensure that meals meet at least 15% of a child’s daily needs while reflecting regional food traditions. Some schools also run community-supported gardens that supplement their menus.

Buffet-style service is common and often the schools will have a model of the lunch options to show children what they will be eating that day. Brazilian school  meals often feature rice and beans, products from cassava, fruit, and a protein such as poultry, beef, or fish. PNAE’s use of digital tools to monitor its programs allows it to provide a remarkably flexible food service to students with dietary restrictions and to maintain culturally appropriate foods for a huge number of schools. 

What Could the U.S. Learn?

After reading about these programs, I can’t help thinking the U.S. might borrow a few ideas — say, bringing real kitchens back into schools (or at least community kitchens serving multiple ones), banning snack vending machines as the “underground” lunch option, and perhaps reintroducing the radical notion of teachers eating the same food with their students.

I’d love to hear how school lunch works where you live — one KD reader last week shared an especially eye-opening account of her own mother who worked in  school cafeterias in Arlington and Alexandria. I am sharing her story below. Do share your thoughts in the comments below this post.

 I too remember my school lunches, but from a very different perspective. I grew up first in South Arlington then Alexandria. My mom was a public school cafeteria worker for Alexandria and subsequently a manager for three elementary schools over her career from the 60’s-80’s. First, in both Arlington and Alexandria school cafeterias , they cooked fresh food from scratch. Nothing was pre-made. Thanksgiving lunch turkey was from whole fresh roasted birds, with stuffing, gravy, the works. The food was very good. She worked for a short while in my elementary school. It was great. My mom would tell us of the huge effort to prepare such meals with small staff, with only home cooking skills. My mom came from a family bakery and had production skills, and able to teach her co-workers how to manage.

She also noted the shift to prepared food being shipped in, the new rules, and slippage in quality. She was frustrated with it all and walked away, retired.

That was very hard, physical work and it was an all female staff then. The food was real, fresh food delivered no more than refrigerated. It would be great for kids to learn where their food comes from and actually grow it. However, it would be an improvement to at least return to serving real, fresh food to children without additives prepared on site. It can be done.