School meals case study: Finland
This school meals case study forms part of a collection led by the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition’s "Good Examples" Community of Practice.
This school meals case study forms part of a collection led by the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition’s "Good Examples" Community of Practice.
With its long history, the school feeding programme has become an integral and important part of the Finnish education success story.
This is the first joint publication by the National Nutrition Council, Finnish National Agency for Education, and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare of its kind, providing food recommendations specifically for vocational institutions and general upper secondary schools.
School meals are the highlight of the school day, and support learning, school satisfaction, food competence and development of food sense. The lunchbreak gives the daily work schedule a natural structure and provides pupils as well as school staff an opportunity for refreshment.
In the 1990s, the European Network of Health Promoting Schools was founded by the European Commission and WHO's Regional Office for Europe after a number of conferences and workshops on the settings-based approach to health.