LIFESTYLE - SPORTS & WELLBEING

Sustainable catering

School canteens exceed local and organic produce targets



By 2025, 50% of all produce used in school catering needs to be issued from Luxembourg agriculture.  Photo: Shutterstock

By 2025, 50% of all produce used in school catering needs to be issued from Luxembourg agriculture.  Photo: Shutterstock

Restopolis, Luxembourg’s restaurant service for schools, the university and other state-driven educational frameworks, so far has exceeded its national organic consumption targets for 2022.

Education minister Claude MeischClaude Meisch (DP) on 4 August revealed that Restopolis was well on track to meet the demands of the national action plan for the promotion of organic agriculture. CSV deputy Martine HansenMartine Hansen in a parliamentary question had asked to know the percentages of local and organic foods used by the catering company.

Every day, the canteen service--which has implemented a sustainable food strategy called Food4Future--distributes 45,000 meals to 80 schools and other educational infrastructures.

For 2022, 11% of all produce had to be organic and local, whereas 38% had to be local. By 31 May 2022, the service had exceeded these rates, with 12,38% of local and organic foods and 51,41% of local ingredients being used to prepare meals for Luxembourg students.

According to the action plan, “by 2025, in collective catering establishments, starting with collective catering subsidised by the State, 50% of products will come from Luxembourg agriculture, 2/5 of which will be organic products and 3/5 from local agriculture with priority given to products from in-conversion agriculture.”

For 2023, the target has been set at 14% for organic and local products and 42% for local food items.

From September, school lunches will also be free for all children in public schools in the grand duchy, as Meisch announced in May.