Free School Meals Sourced from Small-Scale Farmers: a Win-Win Approach for Food Systems Transformation

Free school meals are a strategic lever to implement the right to food and nutrition in the EU, by ensuring all children have access to healthy and nutritious food, daily. Free school meals can also support the transition to sustainable food systems by linking school meals to small-scale farmers using organic or agroecological production methods. Finally, purchasing school meals from small and medium scale farmers is a lever for social justice as it provides a steady source of income to those who work the land in our territories. This policy brief advances four policy recommendations to the EU and its Member States on how to use free school meals as a tool to implement the right to food and nutrition in the EU, and foster a transition to
sustainable food systems.