Thuringia: school lunches: parents' representatives warn against excessive claims

Many parents want healthy school meals for their children.

Thuringia: school lunches: parents' representatives warn against excessive claims

Many parents want healthy school meals for their children. But taste is debatable. Not everything actually tastes good to the children - and then ends up in the bin.

Erfurt (dpa/th) - The state parents' representative has warned against excessive demands on the quality of school meals in Thuringia. Experience shows that students often have different ideas about good food than their parents, as the spokeswoman for the state parent association, Claudia Koch, told the German Press Agency. In principle, it is true and understandable that parents want healthy food for their children. "However, we often experience that the higher the parents' quality standards, the more food is thrown away."

Consumer Protection Minister Dirk Adams (Greens) recently praised the recently increased quality of school meals. In the past, it has become measurably higher in some cases.

Often the children do not like what is served to them as particularly healthy food, said Koch. "The more wholemeal pasta there is, the more ends up in the bucket." According to Koch, this phenomenon occurs frequently in some schools.

In Thuringia, parents have to adjust to higher prices for their children's school meals this school year. The Ministry of Education, state parents' representatives and the school catering network at the consumer advice center are assuming that there will be significant price increases in the coming months.

The requirements for school meals are "very dependent on the audience," said Koch. There are regional, but also school-specific differences. For example, she has the impression that parents in Jena place particularly high demands on their children's lunchtime meals, said Koch. At some free schools, too, parents' expectations are sometimes particularly high.

It is important not to overdo the debates about healthy lunchtime meals, Koch warned. When eating is "driven too much in the healthy direction," children often reject it outright. In any case, parents should always be aware of the possibilities that exist locally to serve schoolchildren food that is as healthy as possible. In schools without their own kitchen, food has to be kept warm for a longer period of time. That limits the variety for a particularly nutritious meal.