Tools for sustainable public meals

TYPE OF CASE/THEME

Tools to support sustainable public catering and procurement made available by stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region.

INITIATIVE IN SHORT

The Baltic Sea Region project StratKIT, financed by Interreg BSR 2019-2021, has developed a Sustainable Public Meal Toolkit with more than 50 tools to support sustainable transitions of public meals and procurement.

IN WHAT WAY A BEST PRACTICE?

This is a collection of best practices originating from the different countries in the Baltic Sea Region. Addressing various challenges, the toolkit makes readily available a host of practical and strategic tools to implement sustainability in public meals. The tools can be adapted and implemented in other settings as well, and are currently available in seven languages.

BACKGROUND

The Baltic Sea Region project StratKIT was a three-year project aimed to make the procurement and services of public catering more sustainable. This was done by, 1) identifying solutions to the challenges of sustainable public procurement and catering services across BSR; 2) developing the Sustainable Public Meal Toolkit based on partners’ best practices; and 3) contribute to the spreading of the toolkit to stakeholders.

Headed by Helsinki University the partnership consisted of 13 partners and 10 associated organisations. To increase the accessibility and promote wide-spread use the toolkit was also translated to all the partner languages (all countries in the Baltic Sea Region except Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden).

The toolkit was developed with the stakeholders involved in the provision of public meals in mind, including policymakers, procurers, caterers, producers, suppliers, consumers, and other public and private bodies. A target was also to support the creation of networks and exchange of mutual learning between stakeholders in the countries in the BSR to increase motivation and know-how. In a new small Interreg BSR project, StratKIT+, running 2022-2024 with all BSR countries represented, the toolkit will be further expanded to also include tools from Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden and a Crisis Management Package. The toolkit will also be translated into these three languages still missing in the current version..

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The tools span over eight themes, namely:

• Strategies for change: Strategic tools to change the way public meals are sourced, procured and delivered in general.
• Communication and capacity building: Tools to raise awareness on sustainable public meals and sharing know-how with professionals. 
• Organic food: Tools to increase the share of organic food in public meals.
• Healthy and plant-based diets: Tools to make plant-based, healthy dishes take centre stage on public meal plates.
• Food waste: Tools to reduce food waste in public catering.
• Resource efficiency: Tools to prepare public meals in a more resource-efficient way while motivating circular approaches.
• Working with farmers: Tools for connecting with the roots of the food system – the farmers.

All the tools are available and searchable by category or singularly and can be read online or downloaded as printable PDF:s. The tools are currently available in English, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, German, Polish and Russian. During spring 2023 the toolkit is to be made available also in Swedish, Latvian and Lithuanian. The Sustainable Public Meal Toolkit website also includes background information and provides context for public meals and procurement, sustainability related to public meals, food policy, etc.

MORE READING

The Sustainable Public Meal Toolkit

The StratKIT Platform

CONTACT

Visit the website for country specific contact points, send an email to info(at)stratkit.eu, or, for Sweden, contact Maria Micha, coordinator for Södertälje Municipality as partner in the StratKIT+ project.

AN INITIATIVE FROM PROJECT MATLUST'S TRANSNATIONAL COMPONENT

MatLust is an EU project with the purpose of strengthening growth and sustainability within the food industry in the Stockholm region. In MatLust’s transnational component we are looking for best practice and good examples in the Baltic Sea region. Areas of interest are sustainable business models for SME in the food sector, innovative applications of public procurement and Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) and initiatives for more resilient food systems. Good examples are documented and spread via MatLust's website and events.