Food is an important sustainability issue. It is a politically and emotionally charged subject, raising complex questions that entail varying interrelated themes - ranging from health and identity to environmental problems and globalization. Free school lunches for all pupils in Swedish primary and secondary schools provide unique opportunities to promote healthier and more sustainable food and eating habits. Drawing on John Dewey’s educational philosophy and a didactic model of sustainability commitment, the aim of the study is to explore the challenges and possibilities of integrating the school meal in environmental and sustainability education (ESE).
The study is based on semi-structured interviews with pupils, teachers, and school kitchen staff in four schools in Sweden.
The results show that the school meal, as a common everyday experience, can provide concrete food-related examples addressing both the social, environmental, and economic dimension of sustainable development and highlight various content areas such as (un)sustainable food production and consumption, global and local food cultures, and food waste. However, to support the pupils’ sustainability commitment, the teacher must offer a variety of learning experiences. For instance, engaging the pupils in meaningful hands-on exercises and experiments as well as offering theoretical and problem-solving discussions.
It is concluded that rethinking school meal as a pedagogical tool for ESE instead of viewing it as merely a lunch break is possible, but it requires that the teacher has sufficient knowledge about food as a sustainability issue.