Green School Dining

Project objective and activities:

According to the statistics of WHO ca one fourth of school children at age group 7-9 years in Estonia and Latvia are overweight and ca 20% of teenagers at age 11-15 consider themselves as overweight person. There is a big risk that health problems related to overweight will only get worse with age. Only ca 40% of children eat daily fresh fruits and ca 20% fresh vegetables. 

Partners have decided that in order to achieve substantial changes in dietary habits of school children and to increase the attractiveness of school dining, the comprehensive long-term strategy should be composed taking into account the expectations and needs of children, motivation and capacity of chefs, food producers, catering companies, school management, municipality specialists etc.

The objective of the project is improved public catering service in schools/kindergartens with specific focus on wider usage of organic products, healthier choices and more active involvement of students.

It will be achieved through development of common strategy and action plan by Setomaa, Rõuge, Smiltene and Tukums rural municipalities targeted to wider usage of organic products and for improving the general quality level of school dining by introducing "school restaurant" concept. Through cross-border cooperation the municipalities participating in current project can develop the common strategy and practical solution for making substantial qualitative changes in school/kindergarten dining using the best existing experiences and practices from both countries.For each region the quantitative target will be set in common strategy, like achieving minimum 20% level or 20-50% level in the share of organic products in school/kindergarten meals.For piloting the common strategy, the activities for involving different target groups are planned, like cooking competitions for creating healthy menus at schools, farm tours for smaller children, exchange of experience visits, trainings for chefs etc.

Links to partners' websites: 

www.setomaa.ee
https://rouge.kovtp.ee/et/eesti-lati-piiriulese-programmi-projektid
https://smiltenesnovads.lv/green-school-dining/ 
https://www.tukums.lv/lv/projekts/interreg-projekts-green-school-dining