Of the vegetarian meals every noon in the canteen in the Grenoble schools, this will now be the norm from the start of the school year in September. It was a campaign promise from Eric Piolle, a measure voted unanimously at the last city council on Monday, June 27. But it will not be an obligation either since two other options will be offered to parents in addition to this vegetarian menu (the green menu): a mixed menu with fish, the blue menu, and a mixed menu with meat, the red menu. Two options that will keep the vegetarian meals already set up in the canteen once or twice a week.
A matter of ecology and public health
“The reasons why we are proposing this is that the climate obliges us”, explains Salima Djidel, municipal councilor delegated to the central canteen of the city of Grenoble. For her, it was urgent to act. Another important point for her: children’s health. “Today, the amount of meat eaten by children sometimes covers up to four times more than the recommendations of ANSES (note: national agency for food, environmental and occupational health safety), so we also have a role as a public force to respond to these issues which are public health and environmental”. And especially for the most modest families, who “are those who paradoxically eat the most meat and often of poor quality”, adds Christine Garnier, deputy mayor of Grenoble in charge of schools.
“Transmitting this to children from an early age is crucial”
These daily vegetarian meals are a very good thing for Yamina, mother of two primary school children in Grenoble. “Transmitting this to children from an early age is crucial”she explains, “because at some point, I think we will all have to eat less meat”. She has already converted her children to vegetarian meals at home, but doing so at school will democratize it even more. “Children inevitably discuss the subject and can say to themselves that these vegetarian meals look good. And the work of transmission will be done in the other direction, from the children to the parents”says the mother of the family.