It is difficult to give up quality but for many parents it is possible to do without 0 km and organic products in order to safeguard the peculiarities of school catering, a public service accessed by millions of schoolchildren. Service which also has an educational function in transmitting the key principles of healthy eating. Not to mention that full-time school, according to 80% of parents, allows you to reconcile work commitments with family ones, especially when both adults work. The presence of school canteens is very high in Northern Italy and progressively reduced in Southern Italy. Despite these differences there is a common thought: 93% of families with attending children and 89% of non-attending children believe that mealtime at school is very important for the socialization of children and for the value of the canteen. school to eliminate all economic and social differences, an analysis with which 87% of attending students and 84% of non-attending students agree. Furthermore, the school meal guarantees, according to 83% of the sample, nutritionally balanced values and promotes the learning of correct eating habits, a figure also confirmed by 73% of those who do not use the canteen. This is what a survey by Demetra on behalf of the Collective Catering and Nutrition Observatory (Oricon) reveals. In one case out of two, school canteens are a valid ally of parents to the extent that they facilitate the introduction of new foods and habits into the family diet.
All at a real average cost of just over 5 euros, 5.13 reported by Oricom but the perceived value is close to 7 euros. Not much compared to the price adults pay for their lunch break: 16 euros. Today those 5.13 euros for a schoolchild’s meal do not cover out-of-pocket costs and puts the companies that provide the service in crisis after the series of increases in the price of agricultural and food raw materials, inflation and the cost of energy. Profitability is declining because service prices were set last year and are not subject to revision. In fact, the vast majority of contracts expiring between 2020 and 2022 were automatically extended, again due to Covid, under the same conditions, without the possibility of a review to adjust the prices which, as we know, have increased over time. According to Oricom data, compared to 2020, the cost of food products increased by 30%, that of gas by 350% and that of electricity by 300%.
The survey also asked what families would give up to restore the sustainability of the accounts of the companies providing the service. It is thus possible to give up those at Km 0, the organic ones and the DOC ones. Those parents, around a quarter of the sample, who routinely purchase those products also participate in this choice. Another 41% also accept a decrease in menu changes.
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