Maltese students are gradually returning to school after the summer break. As in most countries in northern Europe, here in Belgium, where I live, it’s already been a few weeks (if not an entire month) since school started.

The first couple of weeks tend to be a “soft start” until everyone – teachers, students, the school administration – settle down to the usual routine. That routine includes something many Maltese parents may not be familiar with: a hot lunch served at the school canteen.

In Belgium this usually consists of a soup as a starter, a mains, and dessert. Mains are usually a fish or a meat dish and a vegetarian option. Once a week, only the vegetarian dish would be available so children get to eat vegetarian occasionally. School meals are optional and paid for by the parents. Economies of scale and the fact that there’s only one kind of soup, one kind of dessert, and two main dishes keep prices low.

On the menu today: carrot soup, followed by fish (replaced by a hard-boiled egg in the vegetarian version) accompanied by baked potatoes and curried cauliflower, and fruit for dessert.

Culinary education

Some years back, Michael Moore filmed a series of documentaries called Where to invade next. One episode took him to a school canteen in France. In American schools – I am relying on Moore here – school lunches tend to be profit-driven affairs with considerable corporate sponsorship and involvement. The result is that these American school lunches are far from healthy and are generally rushed affairs that serve no other purpose than to fill empty stomachs.

In France, Moore found that school lunches are as pedagogic as learning mathematics or French in class. Like a good lesson, lunches involve planning and some prior thinking. Choices are considered and discussed beforehand. The starting point is cultivating good eating habits in children. First of all, in getting them used to healthy food. Second, that “healthy” doesn’t have to be a byword for “boring” or “dull”. There’s an effort made to prepare healthy food that children like.

There are other considerations, like the emphasis on the ingredients being local and organic. The whole experience helps children develop a discerning palate, one that hopefully, in adolescence and adulthood, will help them stay away as much as possible from sugars and unhealthy fats. It was no surprise that when Moore smuggled a Coke bottle in the school canteen he was filming at (where only water is served as a drink) and offered it to the young diners, he had no takers.

Thinking about food

Until only a few generations ago, we thought about food mostly as to how to put enough of it on our tables. Increasing prosperity over the years first made that less and less of a pressing concern. Until it became obvious that our food choices, even if we don’t think too much about it, had wide consequences. Food concerns are coming back to the foreground. How does food impact our health? How does it impact the health of our planet? How do we ensure our supply chains are secure? How do we ensure the survival of our producers in a competitive, globalised world?

Well-planned school meals may not answer but they do teach children the importance of these questions. As a learning experience, it links to other important lessons, from nutrition and physical education to geography and sustainability. What is learnt is class doesn’t stay abstract and detached from everyday life.

Not to forget, of course, that it’s a measure that keeps parents happy. Healthy and informed eating apart, I have to admit that, having one thing less to think about on a hectic weekday morning, is always very welcome!

Franklin Mamo lives in Brussels. The views expressed here are entirely personal.

Photo: Belga / Julius Schrank