At two schools in Bollnäs municipality, the children will receive meatballs and macaroni every day throughout the term – in addition to the usual school lunch.
– We wanted to test whether this would reduce the special diet and get more children to eat the school meals, says Susanne Björklund, director of nutrition at Bollnäs Municipality.
It’s only been a week or so in the new term with meatballs every day. But so far the children are happy and eat a lot.
– I asked the children today and they say that it’s very good because if you don’t like the school food, you can always eat meatballs and macaroni, says Malin Berglund, chef in charge of the kitchen at Kilbergsskolan in Bollnäs.
It also seems to have made the kids eat more.
– We look at some plates that there was not much on before that they eat and think it is delicious.
Be a citizen proposal
The idea of having another dish every day – with the same food – came from a citizen proposal that Bollnäs municipality received last year.
The hope of Bollnäs municipality is that they will both reduce the demand for special diets and also get the children to eat a little more of the school food.
– We chose something that is easy for the kitchens to tidy up, and that is popular. Something that we think most children would like, says Susanne Björklund, director of nutrition at Bollnäs municipality.
“The pleasure of the new”
But it may be a bit of a novelty factor, the chef in charge of the kitchen believes.
– In the end, I think they will go back and eat the usual food, because we have incredibly nice and good school food in Bollnäs municipality. I think it’s a bit of novelty now, says Malin Berglund.
Four schools in Bollnäs will receive a third dish every day. Two schools will receive one more hot dish, meatballs and macaroni, and two schools will receive one more cold dish included in the salad buffet.
Kilbergsskolan, Arbråskolan and Kilaforsskolan have all started and Granbergsskolan will start next week.