\n<\/p>\n
S<\/span>tudents at Mariebergsskolan, a secondary school in Karlstad, Sweden, make their way to the canteen to grab a juice shot. This morning\u2019s options include ginger and lemon, apple, golden milk, lemon and mint, or strawberry and orange. There\u2019s also the choice of overnight oats with caramelised milk.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just after 9am and the space is usually empty, but thanks to a project launched in 2018 by Vinnova, Sweden\u2019s national innovation agency, students are starting their day with a boost from the energy bar. All the ingredients are donated by local supermarkets which are giving away surplus fruit and vegetables to minimise food waste.<\/p>\n Mariebergsskolan was one of a handful of schools to take part in the project and alongside the energy station, the canteen has also been transformed with input from students in workshops. It now resembles a cosy restaurant, with curtains to help absorb sound, cream-coloured walls and a variety of seating options.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things students asked for was to choose seating based on their mood,\u201d says Linnea Olsson Lee, a food strategist based in Karlstad. \u201cSometimes you want to sit on your own \u2013 we\u2019ve added bar stools facing the window for that \u2013 without feeling observed. Other times you want to sit in a large group at the communal table, or in smaller, more intimate groups. We\u2019ve tried to create different zones. Now students are genuinely proud of their school restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n The pilot project, launched in partnership with seven government agencies, including the Swedish Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket), has meant students are more inclined to stay at school rather than head to the nearest kiosk for sweets.<\/p>\n Teachers have also noticed that students seem more engaged. Olsson Lee recalls one student saying in a workshop: \u201cIf there\u2019s a free alternative at school, then I might consider eating something healthy.\u201d The goal, she explains, has been to gently challenge students with new flavours and textures \u2013 and it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n Another benefit of the work has been an initiative funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturv\u00e5rdsverket), which makes it easier for public-sector chefs to order locally grown produce.<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s universal school-meal programme serves about 2m meals daily (at an annual cost of 7,700 Swedish kronor [\u00a3614] per student) and is rooted in the welfare state model known as \u201cfolkhem\u201d, launched in the 1930s. Free school meals were introduced in 1946 and since 2011 it has been a legal requirement that they be nutritious.<\/p>\n However, in 2018, the Swedish Food Agency flagged that school meals were not contributing to growing issues around healthy eating and sustainability. In response, Vinnova set up a joint food programme to work towards the aim that all pupils should eat tasty and sustainable food. Behind that lay a bigger idea: progress in school meal sustainability would act as a lever to transform Sweden\u2019s broader food system.<\/p>\n There were workshops for students, local food producers and town councils, and the Swedish Food Agency came up with ideas for change based on a system they call the \u201csnowball method\u201d: starting with small, local, bottom-up activities and then growing in scale.<\/p>\n <\/span>Swedish students start their school day with healthy breakfasts and teachers have said they seem more engaged. <\/span> Photograph: Maskot\/Getty<\/p>\n The pilot scheme has been drawn on for Sweden\u2019s national food strategy 2.0 and the 2025 guidelines for school meals.<\/p>\n Alexander Alvsilver, the area lead for future-proof society at Vinnova, does worry about who will take over when Vinnova steps away from the initiative. The climate crisis, the need for resilient local food systems and rising child obesity levels show the challenge won\u2019t be solved by one actor or one project, he says. \u201cKey players need to step in or step up. Together,\u201d Alvsilver says.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/span><\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what the work on scaling up the prototypes has brought to light,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey have the potential to shift decision-making from assumptions to early-stage data. However, prototyping is based on design thinking \u2013 a method not yet part of the standard skillset in most government agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow-up work is continuing in Karlstad and elsewhere. A recent initiative has promised 1m Swedish kronor (about \u00a380,000) to a shared activity among students on the condition they help reduce food waste. For each kilogram of wasted food, the promised sum is reduced, monitored by a digital counter at school canteens and available to view online. At present, it stands at 96,790 SEK \u2013 a result of a 1.7-tonne reduction in food waste compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n At Mariebergsskolan, more students are heading to the energy bar, keen to try the different combinations of juice. A group of boys chat animatedly at one of the communal tables as they tuck into overnight oats.<\/p>\n Despite the success, however, Olsson Lee also acknowledges some of the challenges. \u201cIn Sweden, we sometimes take free school meals for granted,\u201d she says. \u201cWe spend a lot of money on them, so we need to use them as an optimal resource. It\u2019s still a challenge to secure funding for renovations, for making changes \u2013 or even finding the time.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, the work we\u2019ve done has earned us credibility when speaking to politicians. For some students, this may be the only cooked meal they eat in a day. It\u2019s also a way to help reduce socioeconomic inequalities. In the end, you have to see it as something that must be done step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students at Mariebergsskolan, a secondary school in Karlstad, Sweden, make their way to the canteen to grab a juice shot. This morning\u2019s options include ginger and lemon, apple, golden milk, lemon and mint, or strawberry and orange. There\u2019s also the choice of overnight oats with caramelised milk. It\u2019s just after 9am and the space is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5347,8540,18818,9687,533,18817,4008,6023,334,4484],"class_list":{"0":"post-32647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-alternative","9":"tag-brilliant","10":"tag-devised","11":"tag-eat","12":"tag-free","13":"tag-healthily","14":"tag-ill","15":"tag-meals","16":"tag-school","17":"tag-sweden"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}