Vegetarian Meals in School Cantines

From the beginning of the new academic year, schools in Poitiers are serving two vegetarian meals a week in their cantines. For example, the menu for Tuesday last week was radishes with butter (a very traditional French favourite) as a starter, diced mixed vegetables and a vegetarian crumbed pattie made from wheat, emmental cheese and spinach for main course, followed by a portion of organic camembert cheese and some plums.

Radishes at Loches market. Super popular. All these will get sold within hours.

 

The schools have been serving a vegetarian menu once a week since 2009. The kids seem to have taken to it well, after some initial hesitation. In 2018 a new national law required all schools to serve a vegetarian meal. From now on, in Poitiers at least, it will be two meals a week. One will be egg based, the other featuring mainly organic vegetables.

Random homemade vegetarian meal made with local organic produce, chosen by Simon to illustrate the post. Kale slaw, cream cheese stuffed mini peppers, cucumber and tomatoes.

 

The City of Poitiers prepares and serves 1.2 million meals a year, of which 800 000 are school meals. They are aiming to reduce their environmental impact by transitioning to vegetarian meals. They are also aiming to increase by 10% every year their purchasing from local, organic and certified (eg Label Rouge) producers and suppliers.

Camembert box.

The school cantine directors note that there is no more wastage with vegetarian meals than any other. They have had to work on developing recipes and ensuring they are delivering a good range of dishes, but they say it is no more complicated, just less culturally embedded. Kitchen staff have had to be trained, and the reactions of the kids has been carefully monitored.

Another random homemade vegetarian meal made with local organic produce, chosen by Simon to illustrate this post. Sautéed sweet peppers, onions, carrots and potatoes.

Today, 85% of kids will take the vegetarian meal at school. More training is planned for the staff so that they can continue providing creative vegetarian food. The City also plans to send Aged Care Home kitchen staff for training too.