a collective of parents wants to put an end to the “single menu” in the canteen

In the canteens of Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, a well-to-do town in the west of Lyon, four dishes are on offer this week: dumplings, hake fillet, sautéed turkey or pork loin, all accompanied by vegetables. And so it has been since 2016 in this LR town hall in the metropolis of Lyon, with no possible substitution for children who do not eat pork or meat.

>> Vegetarian menus in the canteen: “It’s very good”, “I don’t see what it’s for”… What do the children of Parisian schools think?

This menu is no longer to the taste of some parents who have come together in the collective “Living together” in Tassin. Anissa is one of them. Of Muslim faith, she launched the petition: “The idea of ​​a single menu in the name of secularism is a dangerous and unhealthy ideological posture for living it together”she believes.

“You cannot put pork or meat on the plate of a three-year-old child when he does not eat it and it is contrary to certain convictions, whether religious or philosophical, I’m talking about vegetarianism, for example.”

Anissa, member of the Vivre en seems collective in Tassin

at franceinfo

“I would like them to have the choice between a meat-based dish and a meatless dish, as is the case everywhere in France, details Anissa. And that the children are not hostage to an ideological posture of our mayor.” Seized of a gracious appeal, the mayor Les Républicains Pascal Charmot does not speak. His cabinet recalls that these menus comply with the law and the principle of neutrality and secularism. He also mentions logistical constraints.

In November 2019, an amendment to the Food and Agriculture Bill (Egalim) introduced the obligation to offer a weekly vegetarian menu in all school canteens. This experiment, which lasted two years, officially ended in November 2021.