Kontiolahti quadruples pupils’ uptake of vegetarian school meals

Schools in Kontiolahti, a municipality in North Karelia, now prepare four times as much vegetarian food as before, after making it available alongside meat dishes every day. The change, introduced last school year, was reported by Yle.

Pupils can choose the vegetarian meal, the meat meal or both, and may take seconds. Previously, vegetarian food was offered daily only to pupils whose special diets had been registered.

Depending on the day, 15 to 30 per cent of pupils choose vegetarian food, says Sirpa Laakkonen, the municipality’s head of food services. She says food waste has barely increased and costs have not risen, despite plant-based meals generally being slightly more expensive.

The change was made mainly to bring school meals into line with national nutrition recommendations, which were updated two years ago and emphasise plant-based food over meat. According to the Finnish National Agency for Education, 68 per cent of Finnish schools follow the school meal recommendation based on the national guidelines.

Ursula Schwab, a professor of food therapy at the University of Eastern Finland, called that proportion very poor and said children have a right to nutritious meals that follow the recommendations. She praised Kontiolahti’s approach and said increasing plant-based food in schools requires new thinking rather than more money.

Laakkonen says the municipality presents the daily choices as “lunch 1” and “lunch 2”, rather than labelling them vegetarian and meat meals. Popular plant-based options include vegetarian nuggets, spinach and cottage cheese bites, Palermo pasta bake and spinach pancakes.