This week we’re in Saint-Julien-de-Genevois (population 5000), a small town in the Alps in south-eastern France, right on the border with Switzerland (in fact, it’s a suburb of Geneva–many French people choose to live here but commute into town every day).

The Town Hall has a ‘Menus Committee’, where parents and elected representatives approve the menus every month.

Colorful menus (like this one) are sent home, posted on school doors, and available online, so everyone knows what the children are eating.

And it sounds pretty good (see that dessert? It’s on this weeks’ menu!).

As usual, the meals follow a four course structure: vegetable starter; main dish with vegetable side; cheese course; dessert. All meals are served with fresh baguette (eaten plain, usually one piece per child!) and water. No flavoured milk, juice, sports drinks, or pop. No vending machines. No fast food or junk food. Food for thought! For a full explanation of how school lunches are organized in France, click here.

Monday
Salad: Savory olive bread
Main: Sautéed chicken with green peas à la barigoule (a traditional sauce made with artichoke hearts)
Cheese/Dairy:Fromage blanc (a light, creamy cheese that is somewhat like a thick yogurt in consistency)
Dessert: Seasonal fruit

Tuesday
Salad: Cucumber with balkan yogurt sauce
Main: Roast pork with gravy and lentil stew
Cheese/Dairy:Reblochon de Savoie A traditional unpasteurized cheese from the Alps: richm creamy yellow, nutty-tasting, and a little stinky!
Dessert: Apple compote (sauce)

Wednesday
Salad: Green bean salad
Main: Sautéed veal with bulghur wheat
Cheese/Dairy: A mild, very light cheese (made with skim milk), also from the Rhône-Alpes region
Dessert: Seasonal fruit

Thursday
Salad: Grated carrot salad (a French kids’ favorite)
Main: Filet of fish with lemon; ratatouille and rice
Cheese/Dairy:Mimolette
Dessert: Liégeois au chocolat The treat of the week! A rich chocolate ice cream topped with whipped cream, served in a tall glass. Say no more.

Friday
Salad: Cabbage salad with mayonnaise (sort of like cole slaw)
Main: Sautéed beef with sweet and sour sauce, and pasta
Cheese/Dairy: Organic yogurt with organic sugar
Dessert: Fresh fruit cocktail

Like many small towns and villages, Saint-Julien has decided to outsource its meals to a private company, which makes them locally. It’s a more cost-effective approach–particularly because health and hygiene regulations are so strict, making it prohibitively expensive for many small towns to upgrade kitchens, train staff, and follow the complicated healthy regulations (for example, every meal is sampled, and the samples are stored frozen for several weeks in case of any food poisoning). The issue of whether or not to keep the meals ‘in-house’ has caused much controversy in France in recent years, with no end in sight. I’ll be blogging next month about the pros and cons of ‘do-it-yourself’ versus ‘bring in the food company’ — a choice many schools in other countries are facing.

ps The grated carrot salad is on my blog, here.

Bon Appétit!

This blog post is part of my French Kids School Lunch Project. Every week, I post the school lunch menus from a different village or town in France, where three-course, freshly-prepared hot lunches are provided to over 6 million children in the public school system every day. These meals cost, on average, $3 per child per day (and prices for low-income families are subsidised). My hope is that these menus (together with my other blog posts about the French approach to kid’s food) will spark a conversation about what children CAN eat, and how we can do better at educating them to eat well.

This week we’re in the city of Poitiers, a medieval town in the middle of France (site of historic battles, Roman ruins, perched on a hill overlooking gorgeous countryside, cobblestoned streets — yup, all of the clichés about France). Poitiers was also the site of a major US Army and Air Force presence after WW II–there was even a Poitiers American high school! The town has now hung its hopes on information technology (it’s home to ‘Futuroscope’, France’s futuristic theme park). As is so often the case in France, it’s an intriguing mix of ancient and modern.

Poitiers is also apparently a town that takes kids’ food seriously. The website explains that each meal has either fresh (raw) fruits or vegetables; a protein-rich dish (usually meat, fish or eggs); cooked vegetables; a dairy product (cheese or yogurt — milk is never served, as it is usually only consumed at breakfast); and fresh fruit for dessert most days. Two organic dishes are served per week; and one meal per month is entirely organic. The Town Hall (which is in charge of providing school meals) has also partnered with the local technical high school’s cooking program; as part of their curriculum, the high school students make dishes with fresh, seasonal produce and heritage vegetables (focusing on traditional varieties that are only rarely used any more)–reminding cooks and kids alike of the importance of food as cultural heritage. A dietician develops the school lunch menus every 6 weeks, making sure that children’s meals are balanced each day, but also making sure they eat sufficient variety of nutritious foods on a weekly and monthly basis. The town even reports a summary of types of foods offered on its website (so parents can see that, during the 44 meals served in September and October, children were served fish 9 times, fresh fruit 18 times, vegetables 44 times, and fried food precisely twice).

As in other towns and cities, parents pay according to income. For the meals below, the highest-income families pay about $6 per meal, and the lowest-inceom families pay about 60 cents (yes, that’s right, 60 cents), with the average somewhere around $3.50 per meal. (The parents are billed directly, and the tariffs they pay are private information.) This social solidarity is quite common in France — families get special reduced rates for many things (even train travel), and low-income families get reduced prices for everything from meals to after-school activities.

So, what are kids eatings this week in Poitiers?

As usual, the meals follow a four course structure: vegetable starter; main dish with vegetable side; cheese course; dessert. All meals are served with fresh baguette (eaten plain, usually one piece per child!) and water. No flavoured milk, juice, sports drinks, or pop. No vending machines. No fast food or junk food. Food for thought! For a full explanation of how school lunches are organized in France, click here.

Monday, October 8th
Salad: Tomato mozzarella salad
Main: Roast veal with tarragon sauce, organic zucchini with sauce ‘Provençale’ (tomatoes, onions, olives and Herbes de Provence like thyme and oregano)
Cheese/Dairy: Fromage blanc (a light, creamy, soft cheese that is best described as being halfway between yogurt and cream cheese in consistency), with sugar
Dessert: none

Tuesday, October 9th
Salad: Vegetable-Lemon Terrine (a baked vegetable paté with carrots, broccoli, celery, spinach, eggs, shallots, nutmeg, and cream)
Main: Rice and red beans, with sautéed carrots, zucchini, and red peppers
Cheese/Dairy: none
Dessert: Chocolate Flan (somewhat like a light cheese cake) and an orange

Wednesday, October 10th
Salad: Wheat berry salad with olives, tuna, tomatoes
Main: Scalloped turkey with gravy, and buttered green beans
Cheese/Dairy:Bonbel cheese, a mild cheese rather like Gouda
Dessert: A pear

Thursday, October 11th
Salad: Salad greens
Main: Organic ground beef with roast potatoes
Cheese/Dairy:P’tit Louis
Dessert: Pear-Apple compote (fruit sauce)

Friday, October 12th
Salad: Organic beet salad (a French kids’ favorite)
Main: Fish (hake) filet with dill-shallot sauce, and steamed cauliflower
Cheese/Dairy:Cantafrais cheese (a light, spreadable cheese)
Dessert: Flan Patissier A fresh flan made by a ‘patissier’ (baker specializing in desserts). Nice way to end the week!

This blog post is part of my French Kids School Lunch Project. Every week, I post the school lunch menus from a different village or town in France, where three-course, freshly-prepared hot lunches are provided to over 6 million children in the public school system every day. These meals cost, on average, $3 per child per day (and prices for low-income families are subsidised). My hope is that these menus (together with my other blog posts about the French approach to kid’s food) will spark a conversation about what children CAN eat, and how we can do better at educating them to eat well.

This week we’re in Roquefort-la-Bedoule, a small village (population 5000) in Provence (not far from Cassis and Marseilles). Its motto is: ‘a village, grapevines, and hills’–which pretty much sums up the essence of the agricultural economy here, in which wine-making (in this case, Côtes de Provence) has been the core of village life for centuries.

So, what are French kids eating this week for school lunch? The menus are provided to parents in a glossy brochure that provides a breakdown of daily menus, advice on breakfast, and ideas for dinners to serve (featuring local ingredients) throughout the month. Even if you can’t read French, take a look: it will give you an idea of how seriously they take their food!

Another interesting point: the kids get two types of cheese (or yogurt) at each meal. This is how they get their dairy–rather than drinking milk.

Note: just like everywhere in France, these meals are locally funded (as is that glossy brochure). There are no national subsidies. Parents pay on a sliding scale (proportional to income), and the Town Hall subsidizes meals for kids who can’t pay. So everyone who eats at school (and most kids do) get the same tasty, nutritious lunch.

As usual, the meals follow a four course structure: vegetable starter; main dish with vegetable side; cheese course; dessert. All meals are served with fresh baguette (eaten plain, usually one piece per child!) and water. No flavoured milk, juice, sports drinks, or pop. No vending machines. No fast food or junk food. Food for thought!

(For a full explanation of how school lunches are organized in France, click here.)

Monday
Salad: Pasta salad with navy beans and pistou sauce (a traditional sauce in Provence, made from basil, olive oil, & parmesan — like pesto without the pine nuts)
Main: Hoki (fish) with lemon sauce and pumpkin puree
Cheese/Dairy: Petit Cotentin cheese and goat cheese BÛCHETTE (shaped like a little log)
Dessert: Fresh fruit

Tuesday
Salad: Mushroom salad with chives, radishes and butter
Main: Chicken with Provençal sauce (think: tomato sauce with onions, garlic, onions, and Herbes de Provence) and couscous (semolina)
Cheese/Dairy: Gouda and Saint-Bricet cheeses
Dessert: Fruit yogurt and chocolate ‘entremets’ (little chocolate mousse cakes)

Wednesday
no school

Thursday
Salad: Cucumber salad with bulghar (greek yogurt) sauce and marinated red cabbage salad
Main: Roast pork and ‘gratin dauphinois’ (a delicious potato casserole often served with a with crunchy breadcrumb topping)
Cheese/Dairy: Tomme (a mountain cheese from the alps) and ‘fromage frais’ (like a tangy yogurt)
Dessert: Ice cream

Friday
Salad: Garlic sausage and pickles, hard-boil eggs ‘disguised as tomatoes’ (honestly, your guess is as good as mine here!)
Main: Breaded fish with parsley-topped carrots
Cheese/Dairy: Yogurt (flavored or plain, with sugar)
Dessert: Fresh fruit

In case you’re wondering about the caloric contents of these meals, lunch is the main meal of the day in France – at least 40% of kids’ daily caloric intake. Breakfast is quite a light meal in France. And the French know that eating a little fat with each meal increases your ‘satiety’ (fullness feeling) — so that you don’t feel hungry for a longer period of time. After lunch, kids will wait until 4:30 pm for their afternoon snack (the only snack of the day). So it’s important that lunch is a satisfying meal. I don’t know about you, but many of these menus sound better than what I had for lunch at work last week!

This blog post is part of my French Kids School Lunch Project. Every week, I post the school lunch menus from a different village or town in France, where three-course, freshly-prepared hot lunches are provided to over 6 million children in the public school system every day. These meals cost, on average, $3 per child per day (and prices for low-income families are subsidised). My hope is that these menus (together with my other blog posts about the French approach to kid’s food) will spark a conversation about what children CAN eat, and how we can do better at educating them to eat well.