a school reduces the portions in its school canteen

Starter, dessert or dairy product: you will have to make a choice. In Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime), the school canteen will serve four components of the menu this year instead of five in order to avoid increasing the price of meals, as providers have announced increases of 5% to 10 %. “Our canteen prices range from 60 cents to 3.60 euros. If you multiply by the number of children you have at school and by the number of meals, that’s tens of euros at the end of the month and that’s a declining purchasing power so we didn’t want to impact families’ purchasing power”underlines Laurent Bonnaterre, mayor (Horizons) of Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf.

The mayor assures that quality and quantity will be maintained and also hopes to reduce waste. Nutritionists and parents of students were involved in this decision. With the surge in raw materials, one in two cities will be forced to increase these canteen prices. For Arnaud Cocaul, nutritionist, reducing the number of foods is not the right option. He recalls that “for many households in France, the only balanced meal is that of school”. In France, one out of two children has lunch in the canteen.