How school meals can drive local and regional change

30th B@S on Sustainable School Meals | Wednesday 9th October 2019 - Brussels 

How to link sustainable food procurement with strategic policies or climate change actions? How to overcome public procurement issues related to purchasing "local & regional food"? If 1€ invested in sustainable school meals brings up to 6€ in social return in investment imagine the impact of sustainable school meals all across Europe!

Join the interactive 30th B@S discussion with inspiring speakers from South Tyrol, Paris, Copenhagen, the Organic Cities Network Europe and EU Institutions during the European Week of Regions and Cities 2019. The event will take place on 9 october 2019 in Brussels.

Case studies show that investing €1 in sustainable school meals can bring up to €6 in social return on investment. If used strategically, sustainable food procurement is one of the most powerful tools that all governments levels have at their disposal to create stronger regional value chains.

Sustainable food procurement addresses agriculture, health, environment, climate action, jobs, rural development and culture in regions and cities.

This 30th ICLEI Breakfast at Sustainability's session will showcase good practice and discuss stronger support within EU policies such as EU procurement legislation (clarify 'local food" issue) and the CAP reform (food procurement for regional value capturing).

The session will see the participation of the rapporteur for the CoR opinion on sustainable food policy in Europe (Arno Kompatscher, President of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Italy) and the SDO Chair, Peter Schmidt, from the EESC, rapporteur for another opinion on healthy and sustainable diets - both referring to the importance of sustainable food procurement as a driver for more sustainable regional food systems.

Other speakers will include major cities, some part of the Organic Cities Network Europe (Paris, Florence, Vienna, Vaxjö, Nuremberg etc). ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, as the organiser has been working for over 20 years on sustainable public procurement and recently launched an initiative calling for mandatory, progressive sustainable food procurement in all EU schools and kindergartens with at least 20% from organic agriculture by 2022 as a starting point.

For more information: peter.defranceschi(at)iclei.org

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Agenda - How school meals can drive local and regional change