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Description
Meals in Czech school canteens often have insufficient nutritional quality, which has a negative impact on children''s health. Teaching children to healthy eating habits remains an untapped teaching potential. Currently, about 10% of children with specific dietary needs are excluded from school catering. The whole system has an excessive ecological footprint - about 96 million meals are thrown away in canteens each year and also because of the high animal food content and carbon footprint. It is evident that the school catering system offers a huge opportunity to improve the health of children and gives the chance to make our education more sustainable. Examples from a number of EU countries show that school canteens can work differently.
Summary of project results
Meals in Czech school canteens often have insufficient nutritional quality, which has a negative impact on children''s health. Learning children to healthy eating habits remains an untapped teaching potential. Currently, about 15% of children with specific dietary needs are excluded from school catering. The whole system has an excessive ecological footprint - about 96 million dishes are thrown away in canteens each year and also because of the high animal food content and carbon footprint. It is evident that the school food system offers a huge opportunity to improve the health of children and gives the chance to make our education more sustainable. Examples from a number of European Union countries show that school canteens can work differently.
We aimed to change decree No.107/2005 Sb., about school catering, which prescribes insufficient amounts of fruit, vegetables and pulses, does not restrict the use of unhealthy foods and salt, and the menus compiled according to it are based on a high proportion of animal foods.
We wanted to enforce the modification of the decree by working with key organizations and experts who were also working on the subject. So far, no organization has engaged the public in change. That''s where our project was unique. We were target parents and students first and foremost. The public was able to sign on to our appeal, which we promoted to target groups on social networks and through the media. Students were offered educational activities focused on healthy and sustainable diets and advocacy skills. We worked with well-known celebrities who publicly supported the campaign.
With the support of the public, partner organizations, experts and well-known celebrities, we were actively addressed and engaged with key politicians and officials.
We have strengthened the NESEHNUTÍ campaign team in presentation, negotiation and advocacy skills. We have collected 2675 signatures of citizens who support our proposals to change the decree. We involved 14 NGOs, 8 experts, 5 ambassadors and 2 school canteens. We held 2 online meetings and 4 offline workshops with a total of 72 people participating, where we discussed with the students the possibilities of improving school meals at their school. 10 students supported the campaign with their own activity. Altogether, we held 16 individual meetings and 4 working meetings with key persons to change the decree.
We have developed a proposal to amend Decree No. 107/2005 Coll., on school meals, which includes the replacement of the consumer basket (outdated nutritional recommendations) with another system establishing nutritional parameters for school meals. Furthermore, it ensures that in each variant of the menu it includes min. 1 balanced plant-based meal per week and 1 balanced meat-free meal per week, and that school canteens offer meals for children with dietary needs.
We received support for this proposal from the government commissioner for human rights and a promise to promote it at the interdepartmental group for public catering. We also obtained a promise from the Ministry of Health that it would prepare a proposal to change the decree by the end of 2023 and a promise from the Ministry of Education that it would support the proposal of the interdepartmental group.
Public: More than 2,600 people had the opportunity to express their agreement with our proposals to change school meals. About 600 of them have committed. that they will personally write to Minister Bek. They actively entered into communication with the Ministry of Education and expressed dissatisfaction with school meals and demanded a commitment that would lead to a new draft decree on school meals. They also shared with us their experiences with school meals. If their child has specific dietary needs, we asked them to fill out a form where they described their experience. We plan to publish these stories in the next phase of the campaign.
Students: We launched an Instagram campaign profile with attractive visuals for students and thus created a space where they can actively express themselves on the topic. Two students spoke about their experience in the school canteen in our video. We managed to invite the student Pavel Rysula to a meeting at the Ministry of Health, which was also attended by the deputy ministers and the director of the State Health Institute. It was a good experience for him, which can advance him in his civic activity. Pavel Rysula then arranged a workshop for us at his school “Gymnázim Na Zatlance” where we introduced our proposals for change to other active students.
Experts: In cooperation with the doctor Radana Dymáčková, we created a proposal to change the decree. She helped us correctly set the nutritional requirements in the decree so that they support the healthy development of children. We also collaborated with lawyer Daniel Cao on the draft decree. He added our requirements to the text of the decree so that everything made sense from a legal point of view and the draft decree was functional.
Summary of bilateral results
The Icelandic NGO Planet Laugarvatn was inspiring thanks to the sharing of experiences with school meals and its unused preventive and educational potential.