The Buy Better Food campaign started the EU-wide petition‘A healthy meal for every child in every school in the EU‘. (1)
The initiative calls on citizens to urge policymakers to ensure that every student’s lunch is guaranteed by choosing sustainable meals, thus helping to implement the EU Farm to Fork strategy.
Healthy meals in schools
Not all EU schools offer meals to students. Yet, just as in low-income countries, ensuring a good lunch is a very effective tool for fighting poverty, improving school performance and children’s health.
Extending the free meal to all schools would, after all, help deliver the European Child Guarantee, which aims to ensure that every EU child at risk of poverty has access to their most basic rights.
No studying on an empty stomach
‘A quarter of European children are at risk of poverty’ or social exclusion. Fasting reduces their learning level, preventing them from leading a healthy and happy life. This is why we must ensure that no EC child is left behind, considering also that rising inflation is exacerbating the number of children at risk of food poverty, worsening the situation‘, the initiators of the petition recall.
The economic difficulties of families often lead to malnutrition, including unbalanced nutrition, with overconsumption of ultra-processed industrial foods that are harmful to development as well as a cause of obesity, which already threatens 1 in 4 children in Italy.
Good food at school
The appeal therefore calls for promoting healthy eating in schools, both by providing sustainable meals and by ensuring that students receive nutrition education that also teaches the intrinsic value of food.
‘The European Commission told us on several occasions that it was time to inspire them with concrete ideas. The #SmallPlateBigImpact petition is about healthy school food for people and the planet and social justice.
‘Combined with nutrition education on healthy eating habits and local food culture, your support can make change happen,’ reminds Peter Defranceschi of ICLEI, one of the members of the Buy Better Food Coalition, urging people to sign the petition.
Notes
(1) See the petition‘A healthy meal for every child in every school in the EU‘ at avaaz.org https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/it/eu_kommissarin_fur_gesundheit_dr_stella_kyriakides_eu_eine_gesunde_mahlzeit_fur_jedes_kind_in_jeder_schule/
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
