Structuring the Institutional Food Market: Green Canteens

Ruris supported the inter-municipal strategy aimed at improving the diet of the school community by introducing more options, in particular vegetarian meals and organic produce, while at the same time creating new opportunities for the regional economy.

To that end, Ruris characterised the baseline situation across the sub-region's 14 municipalities, the programme's potential and the selection of pilots, through the following actions:

• Quantification and characterisation of the municipal school institutional market, through consultation with the heads of school clusters and the councillors responsible for education;
• Evaluation of the supply routes and logistics for the schools in the CIMVDL municipalities;
• Preparation of a review of the framework programmes for supplying meals to public canteens through the CIMVDL central purchasing body;
• Identification of the municipalities and schools whose meal service contracts include local produce, and compilation of information on the institutional procurement side;
• Visits to and surveys of 140 producers in the CIM Viseu Dão Lafões municipalities (10 producers per municipality) in order to gather information on the supply side;
• Selection of themed pilot actions to be implemented in the following school year (vegetarian meals, organic meals, Soups programme, Fruit in Schools);
• Preparation of a final report proposing a supply chain model for institutional school canteens, with a 2020-21 Action Plan setting out measures, actions, timetable and budget, with a view to the delivery, viability and sustainability of the proposed model.