Organic and healthy – two goals in one go. A comparative analysis study among public primary schools in Denmark and Germany.

Summary

There is a growing health concern over obese and overweight children. Schools are a well suited setting for children for learning and adopting sound life skills. Using schools in healthy eating strategies may play an important role in preventing children from becoming obese and overweight. As a result a growing number of schools and municipalities engage in initiatives that promote healthy foods and eating. Some of these initiatives however are not focused only on healthy eating alone, but involve objectives to promote more sustainable consumption through developing organic supply chains for school food services. The question therefore arises whether these two change objectives and drivers interact. This paper investigates the interrelation between the two objectives: healthy eating and organic consumption. Can these two goals be reached in one go as previous studies indicate? Is it so that developing either of these strategies leads to a raise of awareness in school food services in such a way that the other strategy is supported at the same time? The paper investigates this possible twin ship by studying characteristics of school food services in Denmark and in Germany. In both cases delivery of school food is voluntary and thus subject to an active decision by schools. The study uses “proxies” as an indicator for healthy eating, such as availability of healthier food items, adoption of food and health issues in curricular activities etc. The study was initiated in Denmark, where a web-based questionnaire methodology was developed. The questionnaire was distributed to schools that were service, and answered by school food coordinators. As a second step the questionnaire was translated and adapted to be used in Germany. The questionnaire explored the attitudes, policies and actions in relation to organic and healthy foods served in the schools. Both Danish and German results indicate that schools with organic supply tend to be healthier when measured in terms of “proxies” for healthy eating.