Suhl strokes a grant: Parents have to dig deep into their pockets for student feeding!

Suhl strokes a grant: Parents have to dig deep into their pockets for student feeding!

Suhl, Deutschland - The city of Suhl has made a far -reaching decision that affects many families. The city council has decided to stop the voucher of 35 cents per serving for student feeding. This regulation, which has existed since 2015, was lifted due to a budget hole in the budget 2025. With this measure, the parents are now forced to bear the full costs of lunch for their children. The decision was made in a session with a large majority and marks a step back in the support of healthy eating in schools.

Why is this decision problematic? A current study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Home (BMLEH) and carried out by the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) shows that a healthy lunch in schools costs only a surcharge of four cents compared to regulations. While school children are almost nationwide in all -day care, municipalities and parents have to worry about how the children's diet can continue to be sufficiently ensured. Many municipalities have already spent more than a billion euros a year for school catering to promote them.

challenges of school catering

The variety of school catering is amazing. Depending on the region and school, the offers vary strongly: some schools cook on site, while others rely on ready meals or frozen food. Smaller, rural schools often face special challenges when it comes to reaching a sufficient number of participants for lunch. A targeted goal could be to increase the number of daily lunch in order to better utilize the capacities and thereby reduce the costs per food.

With the latest decision Suhl, the positive development in school catering could stall. The DGE study illustrates that there is plenty of impulses to optimize school catering for the federal states and municipalities. For years we have been experiencing an increase in the number of children who eat at noon at school: it has almost doubled in the past ten years. The quality of the food also plays a crucial role here, so that the DGE quality standard is becoming increasingly important.

Health promotion in everyday school life

Responsibility in health promotion in everyday school life is not only among schools themselves, but also among parents and municipalities. The BMLeh plans to expand support offers for the municipalities in order to further spread the quality standards. A healthy school dinner should be accessible to every child, and sustainable solutions are required.

Suhl's decision to delete the grant could result in consequences that go far beyond the urban budget. The healthy nutritional standards in school catering could be slowed down, which ultimately also influences the development of children and young people in the urban area. This shows that there is also a financial aspect in the decision that must be reconsidered in the sense of the much -cited healthy diet within the schools.

A good hand in school catering means finding the right way to sustainable and healthy nutrition of the students. Interested parties can find more information on the cost structure of school catering at kita-schulkfitten.bayern.de . The need to actively shape the topic of school catering has become more than clear due to recent developments.