Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Photo 
 
Milan, September 19 2024 - Beautiful, colorful and redeveloped spaces to make mealtimes for boys and girls a positive experience, promote their well-being in their approach to food and reduce waste.
Milan strengthens its commitment to sustainability in school canteens, achieving a significant reduction in food waste in four schools thanks to an innovative behavioral 'nudging' approach, or a 'gentle nudge' that modifies individual choices by acting on the context. The initiative is part of the European Horizon 2020 Food Trails project and involved the redevelopment of refectory spaces.
 
The results of the experiment were presented yesterday during the event “New spaces for school canteens. The redevelopment of Milan's refectories through nudging”, organized by the Municipality of Milan - Area Food Policy and Milano Ristorazione, at Cariplo Factory. 
The project involved four primary schools in Milan, distributed across the territory and selected to represent different types of canteens and services: Nazario Sauro Comprehensive Institute (via Vespri Siciliani 75), FS Calabrini Comprehensive Institute (via Forze Armate 65), Giuseppe Giusti Primary School (via Giuseppe Giusti 15), Cuoco Sassi Primary School (via Corridoni/via Rossini).
The intervention saw the collaboration of several key actors: the Municipality of Milan, leader of the Food Trails project, and Milano Ristorazione, as partners, and Living Lab since the beginning of the activities and the Milanese research and innovation center OpenDot.
 
The starting point was the desire to achieve a joint goal between the Municipality and Milano Ristorazione: to promote healthy meals and reduce waste by using refectories as a lever. After a detailed analysis of the existing environments, Milano Ristorazione, in collaboration with OpenDot, developed an innovative redevelopment concept integrating captivating educational storytelling to raise awareness among children on the issues of nutrition and reducing food waste.
 
The redevelopment of the four refectories, carried out during the summer school closure of 2023, involved interventions to create sound-absorbing ceilings to improve acoustic comfort, LED lighting for a brighter and more efficient environment, solar screens to regulate natural light, colorful and welcoming furnishings, designed to stimulate a pleasant environment, information panels with educational content on nutrition, new floor coverings to reduce noise and eco-sustainable paintwork for a cleaner and more welcoming environment.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions, a detailed monitoring was conducted, with the same menu, of the food wasted before and after the requalification, through a weighing protocol.
The results show a significant reduction in waste in the refurbished canteens, with a delta of 6,10% compared to the non-refurbished ones, where waste has increased.
Furthermore, a survey of appreciation of the new refectories, conducted among children, teachers and canteen staff, showed that 95% of children and adults expressed satisfaction with the changes. Among the elements most appreciated by the children were the information panels (100%), while among the adults the new tables (71%) and chairs (62%) stood out.
 
“Environment as a third educator, said the pedagogue Loris Malaguzzi. And this is also true in places where we eat – explains the Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Education Anna Scavuzzo –. Mealtime is an educational opportunity, so even the refectories are part of that environment that contributes to enriching the effectiveness of the pedagogical and scholastic proposal. These first pilot interventions financed with European funds and the Food Trails project have highlighted a greater appreciation of the lunch and food spaces, and together the 6% reduction in food waste at the end of the meal. We continue together with Milano Ristorazione to progressively expand the number of interventions and continue with food education activities, which are also fundamental to increase awareness of the importance of food among adults and children”.
 
Following the success of this 'pilot' intervention, the objective of the Municipality of Milan is to extend the redevelopment model to other Milanese schools, continuing to promote a culture of healthy and sustainable food through school canteens.
 
"We are very happy, because this constant collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, within the framework of the Food Policy of the city, allows us to continuously expand actions to strengthen and improve both the infrastructure of school meals and the awareness on the topic of healthy eating by all users, children and families - says Davide Dell'Acqua, president of Milano Ristorazione -. We are increasingly involved in many international initiatives, as partners of European projects. This was the first example and allowed us on the one hand to enrich our skills and, on the other, to share our experience relating to such a structured and complex service with other European and international entities, similar but also different in terms of management models".
 
“When a project has a social purpose, we can imagine it as a seed, a small presence that contains a much greater potential - underlines Laura Dellamotta, co-founder and General manager of OpenDot -. By creating a shared narrative and redeveloping the spaces, we have planted this seed in extremely fertile ground, spreading messages about food, waste and sustainability that are relevant for our children today and for the citizens they will become tomorrow. Our hope is that, through co-design and the active involvement of teachers and children, we can maximize the effects of this design gesture and grow other shoots from which the community can then collect new and precious fruits”.
 
The pilot project was made possible by Food Trails, a European project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme that brings together 11 European cities, 3 universities and 5 food organisations. Through Living Labs, inspired by the European policy framework 'Food 2030' and the 6 categories of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), the Food Trails cities have co-designed and co-implemented, since 2020, actions aimed at improving the sustainability of local food systems. These actions have also contributed to creating the enabling context for the development of urban food policies. For more information, you can watch the videos of the 11 Living Labs' activities on MUFPP YouTube channel.