In Umeå, Sweden, some parents are sending lunchboxes with their children to school as they report their children are not eating the municipality's climate-smart and healthy school meals. According to reports, 12-year-old Rasmus Ödmalm often came home hungry, prompting his parents Magnus and Eva-Lotta Ödmalm to start sending him with packed lunches on days when vegetarian dishes, fish, or soup are served.
Umeå municipality reportedly has goals for school food to be climate-smart and nutritious, working according to the Swedish Food Agency's guidelines. Each year, targets are raised for how much of the food should be organic and locally produced. White rice has been replaced with oat rice, and menus have become increasingly vegetarian.
it is very uncommon for students to bring their own food, and she encourages parents to visit the school cafeteria to try the meals themselves
Eva-Lotta Ödmalm stated, "Man can think that I'm doing my children a disservice. But I want my children to be full and not force them to eat something." Her son Rasmus now says he has energy until the end of the day.
Nutrition expert Agneta Hörnell, professor of nutritional science at Umeå University, warns that lunchboxes or adapted diets should only be used as a last resort. "It's important that they get a chance to taste as much as possible. Then they can learn and expand what they eat. But it requires training," she said.
adapted diets or packed lunches should only be given in emergencies, such as when a child has a diagnosis, to ensure they eat something, but this should be a last resort to allow children to taste and expand their food preferences
Marie Bäckman, meal manager at Umeå municipality, reportedly says it's very unusual for students to bring their own food and encourages parents to follow their children to the dining hall and try eating there themselves. The proportion of children with adapted diets, so-called "wish diets," has increased across the country, with many municipalities tightening requirements for who has the right to adapted meals.