Tasty school meals: proposals from the FAO

In 6 tips, the FAO has summarized the advice of various players on all continents who have their hands in the dough of school meals, their best advice :

1. Be creative!
   Be creative in your choice of food and in the presentation of dishes, so that meals are very tempting.
   
   By incorporating colorful, nutrient- and vitamin-rich vegetables, and taking care in the presentation of the dishes, you can offer students meals that are both appetizing and nutritious.
   
   
2. Add your own touch.
   Make meals more appealing by adopting different culinary techniques and local ingredients.
   
   It's important to diversify flavors and vary the consistency of food to make meals more enjoyable and appreciated, especially by children and teenagers. Foodservice operators can adopt different culinary techniques and modify their recipes by adding herbs and other tasty aromatics. These possibilities, often underestimated, are essential if students are to choose nutritious foods.
   
   
3. Use familiar flavors.
   Create dishes in which children are already familiar with the flavors.
   
   Incorporating local tastes, which remind children of what they're used to eating at home, can make foods less surprising and more tempting.
   
   
4. Choose healthy foods.
   Support a food environment that invites children to make healthy choices and eat with pleasure.
   
   The school food environment (including all foods and all places and spaces, within and outside schools, where food is sold or promoted, e.g. canteens, vending machines and various types of stalls) determines how more or less accessible, affordable, attractive and appropriate certain foods are.
   
   
5. Act sustainably.
   Support the creation of more sustainable, yet delicious recipes.
   
   Worldwide, an estimated 17% of food is wasted at the retail and consumption levels. It's essential that a drive to reduce and eliminate food waste is imparted from an early age, and encouraged in schools. At the same time, preparing delicious plant-based meals in schools can give children a taste for vegetables, fruit, nuts and pulses, which are produced in a more sustainable way.
   
   
6. Take a trip to the vegetable garden.
   Take advantage of school vegetable gardens to introduce children to nutritious foods.
   
   School vegetable gardens offer a great way to learn hands-on about food, diet and nutrition. They have been shown to improve children's attitudes towards nutritious foods such as fruit and vegetables.

You'll find these tips detailed and explained in this .pdf document "From school cooks
to school cooks". On the site, each tip is supported by videos of school cooks explaining how they apply these principles in their own environment.

Better still, the School Meal Planner (SMP) initiative, assisted by artificial intelligence, invites governments and ministries to join the group of 17 countries already using this tool, as creating school menus is a complex process that requires balancing nutrition, cost and local food availability.

While traditional methods provide solutions, they often miss opportunities to optimize meal quality, reduce costs and source locally. With smarter tools, schools can design more efficient meals, ensuring children get the nutritional intake they need while supporting local farmers and economies.

By improving school meal planning, food programs can reach their full potential to transform children's lives and strengthen communities.

References

Tasty school meals - FAO
https://www.fao.org/interactive/school-cooks-experiences/fr/

From school cooks to school cooks - World Food Program - FAO
https://www.fao.org/3/cc4807en/cc4807en.pdf

Including gastronomy in the School Feeding Program
https://openknowledge.fao.org/bitstreams/aaa0eab2-de0f-4407-8255-36eec16b6a5b/download

School Meal Planner (SMP)
https://innovation.wfp.org/project/school-meal-planner-smp-plus