Between Food Quality and Budgetary Balance, the Unyielding Challenge of School Canteens

The issue of meals in Belgium, with an inverse correlation between quality and price, naturally resurfaces as students head back to school. This article takes a closer look at the complex challenges of catering in schools.

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"It's not possible to offer a full and healthy meal, with soup, main course, and dessert, for €3.70," argues Benoît Leplae, the founder of Ekilibre, a young Walloon school canteen supplier, in La Nouvelle Gazette. The company, which works with local caterers who prioritize ingredient quality and short supply chains, aims to improve children's health through a varied diet. This, of course, comes at a cost, managed within their model at around €5 per meal in primary schools, for example—a price point that public contracts demand to be less than €3.70.

This price ceiling is not random; it ensures a free meal for communal administrations. This is the amount covered for each complete daily meal served to children by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB) subsidy, which can be received by schools with the most disadvantaged students, in terms of socioeconomic indicators. This is only possible if the schools are aware of and involved in sustainable food projects.

However, the entrepreneur in institutional catering, who will coordinate canteen services for 249 schools with 16 caterers this year, denounces the "harsh law of public contracts," where rock-bottom prices remain the primary criterion at the expense of quality.

Everyone has their say

From the consumer side, the high cost of school meals is also a source of tension for parents, whose bills are trending upward. The cost varies from €3.92 to almost €10 per meal, depending on the school, whether it uses external or on-site catering, and students' canteen attendance habits.

Just like catering companies and other caterers who are concerned about balancing their menus, on-site school cooks committed to using fresh, organic, and locally-sourced products must pass these higher costs on to prices, as La Dernière Heure points out. This is a contrast to the economies of scale achieved by large professional kitchens and catering groups. As a result, many school administrations state that low prices are not compatible with maintaining nutritional quality.

Les Cuisines bruxelloises, which deliver 13,500 meals to schools in ten municipalities, also report a sharp increase in costs since COVID, with energy and raw material prices barely stabilizing. On top of this, there's the constraint of public finances.

A Chipped Budgetary Plate

The end of community subsidies is a critical issue that could be decided during the next budgetary conclave in 2026. Schools risk having to cancel hot meal services if the subsidies of several thousand euros per month are not renewed. Based on last year's spending, the FWB could hypothetically save around €21.37 million. Such a saving would be detrimental to the most vulnerable households, making over 55,000 students who had benefited from free meals pay for budget cuts, as the Family League worries.

The major challenge of finding the right balance between health and affordability is not limited by linguistic borders. In Flanders, too, various stakeholders are walking a tightrope with school meals that cost on average between €2.40 and €3. Caterers and collective suppliers face the added costs of quality. This includes using whole-wheat pasta to replace conventional options and fruits to supplant cookies.

Learning Food Habits (and Dislikes)

"It's impossible to buy everything locally," the director of the food company Agape, which produces nearly 40,000 school meals a day, admitted to Tijd last year. Not to mention that schools often choose convenience. In other words, the cheapest options and, consequently, the least healthy ones. This is highlighted by a thought-provoking observation from Flemish canteens: the decline of healthy foods. For example, quinoa, brown beans, lentils, and cauliflower have fallen out of favor.

Yet, schools play an essential role in shaping dietary habits, as the High Council of Health emphasized in its latest dietary recommendations for the Belgian population. Canteens should offer "structured food education and expose students to healthy habits." What's more, it has been shown that children can be agents of change by "introducing new foods and new eating habits at home in a process called reverse socialization."

Political Promises

The issue of financial accessibility combined with healthy school meals remains a political one. Total free access is the 'Arlésienne' (a promised but never-arrived figure), and the health aspect is a worthy intention (or an electoral promise, depending on the calendar).

Finland and Sweden are systematically cited as models, where the importance of a balanced diet was enshrined in law in the late 1990s. Another model is the Scottish government's policy, which funds local authorities to contract with local producers to offer a free meal to every student. This is an unfair or inconsistent comparison because, as Agape noted, "over there, governments spend up to €7 per meal."

The puzzle remains. What strategies can be adopted to evolve school meal offerings without sacrificing nutritional value, variety, and freshness? And without unbalancing the finances of community service providers? What ingredients are we missing to generate new recipes that are both healthy and sustainable?