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“I want to be an organic chef”: Learning about nature and food through organic school meals in Tuscany, Italy

Mara Miele and Tanja BastiaSchool of City and Regional PlanningCardiff University, UK

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The project team

Delivering Sustainability: Towards the Creative Procurement of School Meals

Financial support ESRC, Economic and Social Research

Council, UK Research team

Kevin Morgan, Terry Marsden, Roberta Sonnino, Mara Miele, Tanja Bastia

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Project approach

Goal Role of public sector in fostering sustainable food

chains Approach

Causes and effects of creative public procurement Case studies

UK Italy

→ Whole food-chain approach Production Procurement Consumption

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Consumption: school meals in Italy School meals

Post WWII nutrients Education

Role of organic food Positive benefits

Impact of chemicals on children Environmental education Participation

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School meals ethos

“School catering can facilitate a formative, educational and socialising journey that can enable school-age children to get to know each other, compare themselves, while highlighting and stressing that despite their different tastes, inclinations, sexualities and socio-economic backgrounds, they all share the affective problems and the symbolism that underline consumption.” Rosa Bianco Finocchiaro, coordinator, interregional programme on food communication and education

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Case study: Piombino

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Research sites

Primary school Perticale in Piombino Secondary school Riotorto

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School meals in Piombino

City Council SIR Eudania

Merger of 4 companies in 1992 HQ Florence 1250 employees In Piombino since 1987

14 schools Primary schools One secondary school, Riotorto

Centralised cooking system 900 meals a day 17% ‘special meals’

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What do children eat at school? All meals have

First course (rice, pasta, soup, etc.) Second course (meat or fish with vegetables) Fruit, bread and water

Three menus Summer (October and mid April to June) Winter (November to January) Intermediary (February to mid April)

Variety linked to seasonality Transition from conventional to organic Decrease waste through

Measuring everything Know children’s response to food

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Head cook’s view

It’s a matter of measuring everything, knowing the actual needs of the children and their response to particular foods, knowing how much they actually eat, what they eat the most. Then we also try to give them the vegetables cooked and prepared in different ways [so that the children don’t get bored]. (Biasci, 2006)

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How do children eat in school?

Catering company staff Bring the meals in containers Serve (self-service) Clean up

Teachers Sit and eat with the children

Learning through food Nutrition Socialisation

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Role of dietician

Provide nutritional guidance Design menus, in collaboration with others Educational programmes Children’s school meals commission

Meet 3 times a year Linked to Piombino ‘children’s city’ initiative Children – catering company Provide feedback on menu Improve menus Participation and inclusion in process of change

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Food education

Sensorial workshops E.g. cauliflower

Breakfast workshops Alternatives to milk and biscuits

Labels Supermarket visits Learning about label information

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Focus group discussions with children (primary and secondary)Italian children’s food habits:

What they eatWhat they like eating Who they eat with

Italian children’s knowledge about food: DishesProductsCooking

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Knowledge about fruit and vegetable

First game:

What are they?

How do we cook/ eat them?

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Second game:

Who are they? Where do they live?What do they eat?Which ones do we eat? How do we cook/ eat them?

Knowledge about animals and animal foods

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Children discussion around animals and animal foods:

They easily said what the different animals eat and allocated each animal to the right environment but they discussed about horses and rabbits:

‘horses are wild animals’.‘somebody eat them!’‘they use them for work, they should go with the elephants’,‘[we ride horses]…they should go with the dogs and cats’,‘but somebody eats them!’.

(all together, little ones)

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Animal foods

[what products do we eat from pigs?] ‘prosciutto, arista [roasted pork], steaks,’

[what products do we eat from cows?] ‘milk, cheese, bistecca fiorentina [Tbone steak],

roast-beef, burgers, ragu’ [meat sauce for pasta]’

[what products do we eat from chicken and hens?] ‘eggs, roasted chicken’

(all together, little ones)

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Vegetables dishes:

[with vegetable you can make] ‘minestrone soup’,

[with artichokes] ’you can eat artichokes raw or you can cook them, boil them’,‘ carrots as well, you can eat them raw or cooked’,

[with peppers] ‘roasted peppers’, or ’a salad’,‘you can make filled peppers, you can fry the peppers or you can cook them in peperonata [ peppers in a tomatoes’ sauce]’.

(all together, little ones)

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Most children do not like the meals at school:

‘I do not like anything [of the school meals]. The tastes are different!’ (R., big ones)

‘I do not like the soups, and there is soup most of the time’ (C., big ones).

They complain about the taste:

Homemade food is the reference point to judge the ‘taste’ of the meals in school and in any other occasion

For example, the majority of the children do not seem to be particularly fond of ‘fast food’ either:

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Traditional eating experience

None of the children mentioned going routinely to fast food restaurants, none of them mentioned going to ethnic restaurants or eating takeaways.

Going to McDonald is perceived by some as a leisure activity:

‘I go to McDonald with my mother when we go shopping’ (S2., big ones);

‘[when I go to McDonald’s] I take the toy and I trough away the rest’ (L., little ones)

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Others have strong opinion on the poor quality of the food in McDonalds’:

‘it is really bad for you! There is lots of fried foods and you never know what those things are made of…’(S3., big ones).

‘I only take the ice-cream because [at McDonald’s] there is only junk food!’ (A., little ones),

‘yes, he is right!’ (several others, little ones)

‘I eat [the burger] but I cannot digest it….’(S., little ones).

‘I have never been because my mother does not allow me to go’ (C., big ones)

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They seldom cook anything themselves but a few said that they watch their mothers when they prepare the meals and they believe that they could cook an omelette or breakfast.

Most of them were also positive about cooking when they will grow up, with one child enthusiastically admitting:

‘I want to be an Organic Chef!

(A., little one).