Horizon : Free school meals

【明報專訊】In many parts of the world, governments provide free lunch to school children with their free lunch programmes, making sure every student can study without going hungry. Here are several world-leading countries providing this kind of free school lunch service.

■Finland

In 1948, Finland became the first country to introduce free school meals. Every school day, all students enjoy a free meal served at the school canteens. The food is held up to the nutritional standards set by the National Nutrition Council of Finland. For instance, a typical school meal may consist of meatballs, baked macaroni and spinach pancakes. The Finnish believe that well-balanced, high-quality school meals can improve students' health and learning outcomes.

■Sweden

Every Swedish student can get a free, nutritious school meal every school day by law. In 1997, schools started offering a free meal on each school day. Since 2011, school meals have also been required to be nutritious. School meals there consist of a warm main dish, salad or cooked vegetables, Swedish crispy bread and milk. Pasta, meatballs and potatoes are among the most common main dishes.

■Brazil

As one of the world's oldest school feeding programmes, the Brazilian programme was first developed in 1955 to fight hunger. Since then, it has been mandatory to provide all public school students with free lunch every school day. In 2009, the programme started to buy at least 30% of the ingredients from local farmers. With the help of nutritionists, the meals meet nutritional needs of students. They usually consist of rice, meat, salad and beans.

■Gear up

1. Every student in Brazil can get a free lunch at school.

(True/ False)

2. Which of the following countries has the oldest school feeding programme?

(A) Finland (B) Sweden (C) Brazil

(Answer on next text)

■Glossary

nutritional (adj) 營養的

typical (adj) 典型的

nutritious (adj) 有營養的

mandatory (adj) 強制的

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[Smarties' Power English 第368期]