At the request of Department of Social Cohesion and Solidarity and Agenda 21 Service – Sustainable Citythe society Beelongspecialized in food eco-scores, conducted a study relating to the quality of the school catering offered to children attending schools in the City of Geneva.
The results obtained confirm the progress made in this matter. Out of more than 350 collective kitchens in Switzerland, the City’s school kitchens obtain the best results never observed by Beelong.
Thanks to the work they have undertaken (research for more environmentally friendly products and development of new recipes) since 2019, school kitchen chefs have succeeded in:
- increase the share of local products (Swiss and GRTA). The latter increased from 50 to 55% (for Swiss products) and from 27 to 31% for GRTA products;
- increase the share of organic products (from 1 to 11%);
- increase the share of non-threatened fish (from 26 to 77%);
- reduce the share of meat products (from 12 to 7%).
Thus, in the school kitchens of the city children’s menus are composed of:
- 93% seasonal products;
- 7% meat products;
- 87% homemade products;
In other words: theplate offered to 7400 children who use school restaurants on a daily basis already exceeds the Confederation’s 2030 objectives in terms of sustainable food by 2023 and is well within the trajectory of global climate goals (carbon neutrality 2050).
Similar approach in nurseries
Beelong was mandated to carry out a simultaneous inventory of the eight production kitchens school meals in the City of Geneva. It took place between 2022 and 2023. “The results of the diagnosis are remarkable, among the best observed to date in all of Switzerland. The cooks in school restaurants have done an exemplary job and are a source of inspiration for thousands of professionals,” underlined Charlotte de la Baume, co-founder of the Beelong company.
A similar approach is underway at the level of nurseries, where half of the kitchens have already been analyzed by Beelong and also present very good results, even slightly higher than those of school restaurants. The other half is currently being analyzed. The cooks are extremely willing and motivated to create change.
In order to reduce its negative impacts and achieve carbon neutrality in 2050, the Administrative Council of the City of Geneva adopted, in 2021, a Sustainable food charter. This document defines a series of general principles (such as “favor local products”, “favor products from sustainable production methods and fair trade” or even “reduce the packaging of foodstuffs”), to be applied in the field of catering.
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