School food supply in Lower Saxony - Analysis of the current situation

Summary

For some years now the number of all-day schools providing school meals in the federal state of Lower Saxony, Germany, has increased continuously. This paper aims at analysing the political determinants and the organization of the provision of school meals in Lower Saxony with a special focus on the provision of organic food and sustainability.
As to methods, literature was researched and internet sources were evaluated. In addition, interviews with experts in the field contributed to the findings. The results show heterogeneous approaches to and different forms of the organization of school meal supply. School boards, as the chief agents of provision, seem to enjoy a high degree of organizational freedom. Due to small budgets, time constraints and lack of experience, the quality of the meals provided may suffer and the range of organic products may be affected. It often results in pragmatic solutions dictated by cost saving. With respect to the invitation to tenders, existing quality standards have not been made legally binding for commercial food suppliers to date. Neither is the quality of school meals of particular significance for school inspections.
Stakeholders of school meal provision receive support from the Consumer Council of Lower Saxony (Verbraucherzentrale Niedersachsen) and the Coordination Centre for School Food of Lower Saxony (Vernetzungsstelle Schulverpflegung Niedersachsen). The latter opened in spring 2009. A series of workshops within the public campaign "Anyone can go organic" (Bio kann jeder) run by the Hanover Centre
of Environment (Umweltzentrum Hannover) provides advice and/or initial training to schools and school boards concerning the use of organic food.