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Classroom Practice/Program

Nutritional school lunches require school teams, and there is a requirement that the schools can show
that they carry out a systematic quality overview when it comes to nutrition. To ensure this, there is also
an annual evaluation of the meals made by the meal developer of the municipality. In Skövde’s case, this is
Ida Henriksson! Together with the head of the kitchen, Ida meets with the chefs and makes an evaluation
of the menu at each school. This investigation ends up in a report that then is communicated to the heads
of the school units. Together with the school heads, Ida then can focus on making more pupils eat more of
the good school meal. A successful way of doing this is to give lectures for teachers about the importance
of the school lunches, and the teachers on their side can then transfer this knowledge to the pupils.
A high proportion of the teachers and educators share the school lunch with their pupils. Traditionally
the school lunch has been held in connection with a longer break for the pupils. More and more schools
have replaced this tradition with a scheduled lunch separated from the break. There is, so to speak, a
“lunch lesson.” This concept has the municipality of Skövde participating in a research project together
with the Academy for School Lunches (a network in the region of Västra Götaland). This concept has been
successful at schools where teachers and the staff of the kitchen are working well together. The pupils
get a quiet and good environment for their lunch with a transparent structure. More food will reach their
stomachs, and the goal to give the pupils a better nutrition can be fulfilled.
In Sweden, the profession as chef is not strong. Professional, educated chefs are missing, and this is a
case that the municipality of Skövde must also address. In order to create attractiveness, the organization
has chosen to decentralize. Great freedom has been given to the creativity of the chefs. Working in one of
the kitchens of the municipality is like working in one of the restaurants or bars of the city—but with better
working conditions that make it easier to combine working and family life. The chef is responsible for the
budgeting, for school lunches meeting goals and laws, and, of course, for ensuring that the communication
with teachers and lunch guests works fine. The decentralization of the organization has been successful in
finding competent chefs who are passionate for their profession.
Lately the climate issue is more and more in focus and in Sweden the public lunch—the school lunch—
is at the forefront in the changeover for more climate-adapted meals. Skövde municipality is no exception,
and aside from striving for the use of as much as possible of Swedish-produced food, as low food waste as
possible, and low CO2e/kg, there is also a
search for sustainable marine food. Much
attention has been given to the work in this
field, and now there are RAS-cultivated
fish, marinated herring, mussels, and
seaweed on the menu.
The school lunch is needed in Sweden
and has a great potential to be a socially
smoothing factor as it at the same time
contributes to security and stability in at
times a worried world.

Marianne Skardéus is a member of Chi Chapter in Sweden State Organization and serves on DKG’’s 2022–2024 International
Leadership Development and Golden Gift Fund Committee. mskardeus@gmail.com

Ida Henriksson is Developer of Public Meals, Skövde, Sweden: ida.henriksson@skovde.se

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