Organic food for everyone: This is how sustainable food can be achieved in everyday daycare!

Organic food for everyone: This is how sustainable food can be achieved in everyday daycare!

It was an exciting workshop that was recently organized by the Office for Food, Agriculture and Forestry (AELF) Ebersberg-Erding under the motto “Small budget, but organic”. It was shown here that high-quality, regional and ecological ingredients can be used in communal catering even on a tight budget. Top organic chef Christopher Hinze provided impressive ideas on how planning, creativity and strategy can be used to bring high-quality dishes to the plate without overtaxing the cash register. Weekly Gazette reports.

The participants, including kitchen managers from daycare centers, were enthusiastic about the prepared dishes such as mountain lentil bolognese and eggplant cordon bleu. These recipes should not only promote an appreciation for organic food, but should also serve as excellent examples of an everyday diet. Ecotrophologist Silvia Hilger also pointed out that the desire to integrate organic food into communal catering is constantly growing, not only out of conviction but also due to upcoming legal requirements.

The legal framework and the challenges

The rapidly growing market for organic food is supported by the guidelines until 2025, which require state institutions to source at least 50 percent of the food they use from regional and organic production. This is a step in the right direction to enable healthy and sustainable food in public catering, like this Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture reports.

Around 16 million people eat in communal catering facilities every day, including six million children and young people in daycare centers and schools. It is therefore crucial that the diet is predominantly plant-based, seasonal and meets high quality standards. The federal government's nutrition strategy plans to establish the DGE quality standards in community catering facilities by 2030.

Innovative solutions and support

In order to meet these challenges, the AELF offers support with calculation aids, tips for meal planning and information about funding opportunities. A valuable digital tool – “Our School Food” – will be available free of charge to schools in Germany from September 2024 and is intended to help establish balanced and sustainable offerings. The Federal Center for Daycare and School Catering also offers support for institutions that want to use organic food, including through advice and recipe ideas.

Another interesting aspect of communal catering is the concept of “nudging”. This behavioral psychology technique can help promote healthy and sustainable food choices, for example by prominently placing healthy dishes or highlighting them with color-coded serving stations. The acceptance and success of such measures increases the more people involved - from school children to chefs - are included in the process so that the cafeteria is perceived as “theirs”. The BZFE highlights that communal catering has great potential to make healthy and sustainable food accessible and attractive to many people.