Common Table

What can change through a school meal? Common Table invites readers to see the canteen not simply as a food service, but as an everyday infrastructure connecting health, education, sustainability, food culture and community. The book brings together the experience of SchoolFood4Change (SF4C), a European Horizon 2020 project that, from 2022 to 2026, involved cities, schools, cooks, local authorities, researchers and civil society organisations across 12 European countries in making school food healthier, more sustainable, inclusive and educational.

Written also for readers unfamiliar with the project, the handbook combines scientific evidence, practical tools, educational activities, real-life experiences and recipes tested in European school canteens. It highlights the often-overlooked role of school cooks and the need to design meals that are not only nutritionally sound and environmentally responsible, but also tasty, familiar and appealing to children. Through the PLANETS method, work on food preferences, progressive exposure to new flavours, circular cooking and active learning, it shows how sustainability goals can become tangible everyday experiences.

Rather than prescribing a single model, Common Table offers knowledge and tools that can be adapted to different places and food cultures. Its central message is clear: changing ingredients is not enough. Making the canteen a common good requires skills, listening, cooperation and trust across the entire school food system.

Italian version

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