Left-Liberal City to Save the Planet with 'Green' School Meals – Now Students Bring Their Own Lunchboxes

Umeå’s left-liberal leadership has transformed school meals to make them more “green” in an effort to reduce climate impact. But the change is meeting criticism from students and parents, and more and more have started sending their kids with their own lunchboxes. At the same time, the municipality is sticking to its position and refers to the fact that in Sweden today we eat as if we had “four planets”.

The municipality is run by the Social Democrats, the Centre Party, and the Liberals, who aim for school food to be both healthy and “climate-smart”. One part of this is increasing the vegetarian options on the menu.

Parents Magnus Ödmalm and Eva-Lotta Ödmalm noticed that their son Rasmus Ödmalm often came home hungry after the new school food was introduced. They are not alone — other families have also started sending their own lunches on days when the school serves only vegetarian dishes, soup, or fish.

“Some might say I’m doing my children a disservice. But I want my children to feel full and not force them into anything,” Eva-Lotta Ödmalm told SVT.

And their son says to the public broadcaster that he’s felt much more energetic since he started bringing lunch from home — more specifically, that he has enough energy until the end of the day.

Previously, some schools wanted to guarantee popular dishes like meatballs and pasta every day. That arrangement was stopped following recommendations from the National Food Agency. Today, special diets are only offered to students with allergies or other documented needs.

Eva-Lotta Ödmalm believes there should always be an option that children recognize. She says her children are used to traditional Swedish home-cooked food and that the school replacing such meals with, for example, falafel is challenging.

Municipality’s Activism: “We Eat as if We Had Four Planets”

Marie Bäckman, head of meals in Umeå municipality, wants residents to understand that we can’t continue eating as we do now. According to her, we currently consume food as if we had several planets to live on.

“If you always only get to eat what you like it can easily become unbalanced and not so nutritious. Today we eat as if we had four planets. I believe we all need to work together on this,” Marie Bäckman insists.