School Meals for All - School feeding: investment in effective learning – Case Finland
In Finland, free-of-charge school meals have been provided since the 1940s, with the aim of supporting the educational system. Today, each school day, all pupils and students attending pre-primary, basic and upper secondary education are entitled to a free-of-charge, full meal. With its long history, the school feeding programme has become an integral and important part of the Finnish education success story. In order to tell this story globally, Finland, in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), has for the first time collected the lessons learnt into a comprehensive document that follows the school feeding assessment outline developed by WFP.
With a history of over 70 years, Finland has the world’s longest-running free-ofcharge school feeding system. Each school day, all pupils and students attending pre-primary, basic and upper secondary education are entitled to a full, balanced meal. School feeding system is directed by national legislation, instructions and recommendations. Since 2004, school meals have been part of the national school core curriculum giving the system an educational status. The core curriculum also includes sustaining the wellbeing of the pupils including basic education, before-school and after-school activities, as well as pupil welfare services. Indeed, the key strengths of today’s school feeding system in Finland are: serving nutritionally balanced, safe and wholesome meals every school day to all pupils; a well-functioning system that builds on over 70 years of lessons and experiences; strong national steering through legislation, instructions and recommendations; systematic and decentralised procurement through municipal liability; skilled and educated catering staff; good and closely-monitored food safety in Finland in general; horizontal cooperation and trust throughout the system.
