Have your say! IFOAM Organics Europe provided feedback to the Commission’s EU School Scheme roadmap

As announced in the Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, the Commission will “review the EU school scheme to enhance its contribution to sustainable food consumption and in particular to strengthen educational messages on the importance of healthy nutrition, sustainable food production and reducing food waste”.

What is the EU school scheme, you ask?
The EU school fruit, vegetables and milk scheme supports the distribution of products, educational measures, and information measures. The total EU budget for the scheme, in the period 2017-23, was set at €250 million per school year of which up to €150 million for fruit and vegetables and up to €100 million for milk.

More information on the EU School Scheme is available on the European Commission’s website.

In view of reviewing this scheme, the European Commission asked for stakeholders’ feedback to their roadmap and inception impact assessment throughout July 2021.

The European organic movement’s feedback
IFOAM Organics Europe replied to this roadmap, mainly highlighting that increasing the ambition of the EU school scheme in terms of the share of organic products will result in an increase in demand for organic products. This, in turn will lead to increased farm conversion to organic and is therefore one of the ways in which the words and the targets of the F2F strategy can become reality. More organic products in school canteens have also resulted in other benefits which are highlighted in IFOAM Organics Europe’s feedback.

Have you say – Next steps
The next step will be for stakeholders to give feedback to the public consultation on this same topic in the first quarter of 2022. For every “Have your say” Commission initiative, stakeholders can reply to the roadmap, and then to the public consultation.