School meals: what we offer

Find out how the school meal programmes are financed, designed, implemented and monitored in Finland. “Introducing Finnish way on School meals programme” seminar and webinar provides firsthand experience, research outcomes and practical lessons learnt from different school meal experts. The session covers e.g. dietary, cultural, health, education and menu related aspects to school meals. Webinars can be accessed from anywhere, and seminars can be arranged in Finland and also in some of the Finnish embassies around the world. 

Finnish experts on school meals can provide technical assistance with all aspects of school meals from an institutional set-up to monitoring the impacts of a school meal system. 

Creating an institutional set-up 

Responsibilities have to be clear to ensure efficient and well-organized school meals. In Finland, school meals are a cooperation of ministries and national agencies and municipalities. The right institutional set-up depends on the local circumstances. 

Learn different steps for setting-up functional school meals systems and how to make them fit with the existing structures in your country.

Focusing on nutritious meals and food education

A balanced school meal derives from the local food culture, quality food and cost-efficiency. Mealtimes are also learning situations from hand washing to understanding healthy and sustainable choices of food. Teachers, pupils and parents participate in a dynamic school meals system.

Learn how to ensure nutritious and safe food and turn mealtimes into an educational situation.

Monitoring and evaluating school meals to ensure top quality

To ensure a successful school meal system, nutrition quality, participation and the costs of school meals need to be monitored and evaluated regularly. This is how we can identify key issues and make the system more impactful for the pupils and the society. 

Learn an efficient way to monitor different aspects of school meals from nutrition value to food waste – even with digital applications.

Identifying benefits and key stakeholders in your context

School feeding contributes to nutrition, but it can also affect national economic development, community well-being, gender equity, environmental and climate sustainability, and many other issues relevant to development. This requires collaboration of different stakeholders.

Learn the impacts and benefits of a school meal programme in your context to better communicate the change it could make in your context. 

Other technical assistance needs related to school feeding?

Visit Finland to find answers to all your questions about school meals. Our visiting programmes include meetings with different experts from municipalities and schools, visits to schools, meetings with enterprises working with food services and school meals, innovative school meal “competitions”, and of course, a Finnish school meal to enjoy in the authentic environment.