The School Lunch Coaching Program offered by the Government of Bavaria started in September 2017. An external nutritional coach visited the FIS twice, to get an idea of the situation during lunch break, test the quality of the food and discuss the creation of a balanced menu with the cafeteria team and the school lunch committee. The Cafeteria team visited a workshop about “How to create a balanced menu.”
To all parents worrying about the food at school, the food served in the FIS Cafeteria has been found to be of highest quality and well balanced (I suspect that the problems, which arose, were not caused by the food itself but by something else. Our children, mine for sure, would prefer to have pasta bolognese each day…).
However, just because the food is good, does not mean it cannot get better. The Head of the Cafeteria, Doris Fiedler, lives and breathes that philosophy. She works very hard together with her team to improve the food and to come up with new ideas. As all of you who cook, know – there is nothing you want more than for the food you make than to be liked.
We all have to bear in mind though, that the lunch guests vary in age from 3 to 18 and come from more than 40 different countries. It is difficult to make all guests love the food every day. But be assured, the food is healthy, nutritious and more than good for out children to eat.
In our discussions other aspects, especially regarding the environment during lunch break, have been brought forward as being the main contributors to the dissatisfaction with, not only the hot lunch, but with lunch in the Cafeteria general. Some of them are:
- The acoustics
- The timing of the lunch (e.g. is it better to have the outside break before eating?)
- The amount of time the children have to eat the lunch
- The supervision of the children (are supervisors needed?)
- What could parents do to help? Since I have heard how our children behave (or rather not behave) at lunch, I am now talking a lot with my children about behavior when one eats, respect for the ones that provide the food, respect for the food itself and respect for the other children needing a time of peace and quiet to eat their lunch.
To make school lunch a time for the children to relax and gain new energy for the long afternoon, we will continue to work on topics like:
- Increasing the acceptance of the hot lunch
- Improving of the atmosphere during lunch time
- Enhancing a clear “Mission of the Cafeteria” as a guideline for further development
- Possible parent involvement
A third visit of our coach to the school, took place on December 18, 2017. Also, the cafeteria team is invited for another workshop in January on the topic “sustainable food”.
On behalf of the whole team I kindly ask you to take a moment to talk to your children about the importance of food and the atmosphere when we eat.
Ulrica Geissler
Parent representative School Lunch Coaching program
