After Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford brought free school meals to the top of the social and political agenda during the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for children to have a high-quality, nutritious and healthy lunch every day was highlighted across the UK. But in Finland, the importance of free meal provision has been widely accepted for decades.
Finland is believed to have been the first country in the world to serve free school meals when the policy was introduced in 1943, and to this day, its Government provides free meals to all school pupils aged from six to 18.
PRINCIPLES OF EQUALITY
On its international cultural promotion website Finland Toolbox, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs states that: ‘School meals are an investment in equality and the future. They build equality between children from different backgrounds, strengthening equal opportunity.’
Suzanne Perkowsky, co-founder and head of education at New Nordic School, agrees. ‘From the very beginning, schools, early years and daycares in Finland have been built on principles of equality. Everybody having access to a warm meal, to nutritional food, irrespective of whether they can pay for it, is the first step towards equality. That is the essence of the importance of the school lunch in Finland.’
Finland is now the third-most-prosperous country in the world, and regularly ranks among the happiest nations. But at the beginning of the 20th century, it was hardly well-off, with a GDP less than half of that of the UK and the United States, and it had been crippled by losses in the Second World War.
However, its relative poverty served only to spur politicians on to address the deprivation faced by many children at the time.
Dr Arja Lyytinen, assistant professor in the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Eastern Finland, explains, ‘There was a lot of concern about how to feed children and ensure they got more food, as there was a lot of inequality and children who did not have enough to eat. Bringing in free meals was a long process and started with very minor steps. In the beginning, lunches were often very simple things like soup or porridge. Children would bring in milk and bread from home in their backpacks, and then they got a warm meal at school. It has only gradually evolved to being a more complete meal, which nowadays meets a third of the daily energy needs of children.’
The social impact of free school meals is vital, Dr Lyytinen says. ‘Children getting the same types of food ensures better equality. They can’t bully each other about who has a better packed lunch. It also helps ensure equality for parents, who can trust that when their children go to school, they get good food. That takes the burden off parents to prepare a packed lunch, allowing more time for work, which leads to better gender equality, which in turn could positively affect national productivity and economic growth.’
Indeed, the Global Gender Gap Report 2018 ranked Finland as fourth in the world for gender equality, with an employment rate of 72.5 per cent for men and 70.7 per cent for women in 2020.
BUDGETING FOR A MENU
While the Basic Education Act states that students must be provided with a balanced meal every school day, each municipality is ultimately responsible for evaluating school meals, what is offered and how much is spent on them. Budgets are set locally, so the make-up of meals depends heavily on councils’ decision-making.
‘Cost is a factor,’ says Dr Lyytinen. ‘The average cost of a school meal is around €2.80, which covers the ingredients and the work involved in preparing the food. There is no funding earmarked for school meals, so each municipality has to think about the cost and where to put the money, as well as what to offer. That means meals can look quite different in different areas.’
However, there is some cohesion across municipalities, as the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations form the basis of all dietary guidelines across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden (see More information). These are then used by the Finnish Government to form official meal recommendations.
Traditional Finnish foods such as oats, rye, barley, potatoes, onions, cabbages, root vegetables, berries and mushrooms are central to most menus. Fish is also a big feature.
An example lunch menu might include:
- ½ plate: vegetables (fresh or cooked).
- ¼ plate: potatoes, rice or pasta.
- ¼ plate: fish, meat or vegetarian option.
- Drink: water, different milk options.
- Sides: Bread or rye crispbread with margarine or butter.
- Dessert: berries or fruit (other desserts also provided for special occasions or if the energy content of the main meal is not high).
Schools also usually serve at least one vegetarian meal per week.
FOOD EDUCATION
As part of a holistic curriculum, nutritional school meals are part of every student’s education in Finland. They are used to help teach children about nutrition, health and good eating habits, as well as communication and social skills during meal times and independence and participation, for example by serving themselves in schools’ buffet-style canteens.
‘Food education is top of the agenda in research because we want more models of how to teach children about good food so more of them will eat it,’ Dr Lyytinen explains. ‘If children do not eat all their meals, they won’t get the nutritional value.’
Children are therefore regularly involved in menu planning, and are invited to provide feedback on what foods are provided.
‘This gives children ownership of their learning but also helps to ensure schools are serving food that everyone will eat,’ says Dr Lyytinen.
The educational benefit of a good lunch is also important. ‘Nutritional status affects the brain development and function,’ Dr Lyytinen adds. ‘One interesting study from Denmark, where children usually have a packed lunch from home, found that when children had a healthy lunch offered at school, there was improvement in reading performance.’
Theme weeks, harvests, international festival celebrations and trips to the outdoors and farms also help include food education in the curriculum, while sustainability is a growing concern, and updates to the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations in 2022 are expected to address the environmental impact of food.
COVID
During the pandemic, schools in Finland closed for two months. While students were at home, schools continued to provide them with a packed lunch which families could come and collect. Not every meal was hot, but over time, meals that were able to be heated up at home were added to the offer.
‘There was always an expectation that children would still get lunch during the pandemic,’ says Perkowsky. She notes with a hint of surprise that universal free school meals are still a long way off in the UK.
‘Of course, it is all much easier in Finland as the population isn’t that large, so it’s more manageable,’ she acknowledges. ‘But, having said that, if you provide schooling for everyone, surely lunch should be provided as a matter of course. It’s just a matter of releasing Government funding. What Marcus Rashford did was amazing, and I have huge respect for him. But it is so surprising that he, as an individual, had to do it. It really should be the Government.’
MORE INFORMATION
- Nordic Nutrition suggestions: https://bit.ly/2Zct28i
- School Meals for All: https://bit.ly/3pmgPIW
- School meal suggestions: https://bit.ly/30LhcCw
- Early education meal suggestions: https://bit.ly/2Z4Fmrf
- Food education guidelines: https://bit.ly/30A5zOy