School meals: connect with companies

Technology for food preparation, Software for recipe planning, nutrition analysis and health monitoring

Afstor and Karugid together deliver a full stack solution for school feeding with smart cookers. The solar-powered Afstor cookers enable sustainable electrical heating of food for off-the-electricity-grid schools and homes. The Karugrid-added functionality enhances the cookers with digital features and connects the cookers to educational services. This innovative combination delivers a complete set of tools and services for modern schooling in a compact form.

Get in touch: Antti Pinomaa, Managing Director, Co-founder, antti@karugrid.com and Ari Piispanen, CEO and founder, ari.piispanen@afstor.com

Software for recipe planning, nutrition analysis and health monitoring

CGI Aromi is the most used food service ERP in Finland. Aromi is designed to streamline to processes for the whole food service ecosystem from producers to kitchens and to dining consumers. The system provides some 180+ millions of meals annually in schools, hospitals, service homes and office centers in the Nordic countries. CGI Aromi ensures nutritious meals for all the dietary needs. It enables sustainable meal-production by controlling food waste and supporting the use of seasonal and local produce.

Get in touch: Tero Pollari, Director, Consulting Services, tero.pollari@cgi.com

The Finnish Society for Food Education, Ruukku, is an expert organisation promoting and developing food education in Finland, especially in schools and in early education. Ruukku aims to improve sustainable wellbeing and health by increasing food knowledge and respect for food. Together with University of Eastern Finland we have developed Tasty School model for food education for primary schools which has been assessed as an effective tool for health promotion. We offer inspiring lectures and training sessions on food education and Finnish school meals.

Get in touch: Silja Varjonen, Executive Director, silja@ruokakasvatus.fi

Software for recipe planning, nutrition analysis and health monitoring 

Jamix Kitchen Intelligence System digitalizes School Lunch system. Today 30% of all cities and towns in Finland use Jamix to manage School Lunches. Recipes and Menu Cycles including costing and nutrition is in the core of the system. Jamix helps in planning, runs the production, places orders, publishes food data to students and keeps inventory in control. All this significantly cuts waste, saves money and reduces the carbon footprint. Jamix is intuitive and can be used by everyone in the kitchen. Jamix makes the kitchen work! 

Get in touch: Mikko Jaatinen, CEO, mikko.jaatinen@jamix.com

JAMK offers training and consulting services as well as study visits to Finland for school meal developers aiming to apply the Finnish school meal model in their country. JAMK’s team of experts has diverse and comprehensive experience and proficiency in business development in food service and a passion for healthy and sustainable gastronomy. JAMK provides consultation and tailor-made localised services for developing and launching a healthy and sustainable school meal system in your country or organisation.
 
Get in touch: Ani Lietonen, Manager, Global Education Services, ani.lietonen@jamk.fi 
 

Technology for food preparation

The Lytefire 5 solar oven is a solution created to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and support sustainable practices. In developing countries, Lytefire 5 ovens, roaster, stove or food dehydrator are replacing a wood, charcoal or electric oven 10 months a year with an amazing positive impact. The Lytefire's are manufactured in Kenya, Ehtiopia, Sudan or France or built on-site if part of large educational programs. 

Get in touch: Eva Wissenz, Co-Founder, Executive Director, eva.wissenz@solarfire.io

Technology for food preparation

Metos produces and sells products and services for professional kitchens. For schools, Metos designs and sells production tools and kettles, food service lines, dining areas, self cleaning areas, dishwashing areas as well as bio waste measuring and monitoring systems.
 

Get in touch: Janne Tirkkonen, Marketing Manager, janne.tirkkonen@metos.fi

Plant Foods for Climate campaign offers practical tools for increasing the availability of climate-friendly, plant-based food in mass catering. These tools are intended for food services and their customers as well as policymakers. We offer a recipe bank with sustainable plant-based main course recipes that have been designed specifically for the needs of mass caterers, such as schools. The recipes are nutritionally balanced and include per-portion carbon footprint estimates. The aim of the campaign is to make it easier for food services to offer their customers climate-friendly, plant-based food every day.

Get in touch: info@ilmastoruoka.fi

Ruokailo is an expert in increasing the supply of plant-based meals in mass catering, cities, municipalities, businesses, and communities. We work with a broad array of stakeholders such as policymakers, NGOs, various food experts, and chefs. We offer training, expertise, strategies, menu design and practical tools to achieve food-related goals like carbon neutrality. We also provide presentations, talks, materials, and staff training. Our goal is to increase the consumption of plant-based food, simultaneously ensuring nutritional adequacy and deliciousness. 

Get in touch: Charlotta Hyttinen, CEO, charlotta@ruokailo.fi

Technology for food preparation

Teuvan Keitintehdas Oy specializes in mobile and easily deployable kitchen solutions. Their product range covers anything from small cookers up to fully equipped trailer mounted field kitchens. Teuvan Keitintehdas can provide cooking solutions that use solid or gaseous fuels with no need for electric power as well as diesel powered systems with very low electric power requirement. 

Get in touch: Henri Penttilä, Managing Director, henri.penttila@teuvan.com

The Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition in the University of Eastern Finland offers expertise related to school meals, for example in formulation of dietary recommendations and food education to children. 
A study visit suitable for school principals, teachers, school administrators, health promotion and nutrition planners and managers and food services directors is available. The 4-day study visit includes:
• lectures by Finnish educators, nutrition experts and professionals,
• site visit to catering service centre and local school
• Reflective workshop with Finnish nutrition experts on perspectives of school meals
The participants get to meet nutritionists, researchers and policy makers who are involved from practice to administration and research.

Get in touch: Mari Argillander, Coordinator of Transnational Education, mari.argillander@uef.fi

VisitEDUfinn offers different events, study tours, and visit programmes that all include visits to Finnish schools and participation in the Finnish school meal. Our customized school meal -themed visit programme also includes meetings with educational experts and enterprises related to school meals.

Get in touch: Riku Korosuo, CEO, riku.korosuo@visitedufinn.fi

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare combines research in public health, nutrition, food systems and sustainability in all policies. The institute produces guidelines and studies related to school meal programmes, collects information related to school meals from other authorities, and conducts research on the status and development of school meal programmes in Finland. 

Get in touch: Heli Kuusipalo, Senior Researcher, Heli.kuusipalo@thl.fi

ELO Foundation for Finnish Food Culture promotes Finnish food cultures in Finland and internationally. The foundation coordinates a national school meal expert network, organizes seminars and develops projects related to school meals in Finland and abroad.

Get in touch: Bettina Lindfors, Executive Director bettina.lindfors@elo-saatio.fi

Food from Finland, a programme under Business Finland, focuses on promoting export of Finnish food and beverage products. They can also provide information about food and beverage companies providing components to school meals internationally. 

Get in touch: Esa Wrang, Head of Food Program, esa.wrang@businessfinland.fi and Lili Lehtovuori, Global Opportunity Leader, lili.lehtovuori@businessfinland.fi

Finfood – Finnish Food Information (Ruokatieto Yhdistys ry) promotes food production, food culture and food education in Finland. The main objective of the association is to raise the awareness of Finnish consumers of all ages towards food and promote the different aspects of the food sector. Our food education materials help to understand the cultural, social, ecological and economic meanings of food and to understand the routes of food from field to table. In addition, we strengthen students' knowledge related to responsible consumerism and enjoyment of food. Ruokatieto also administers the Hyvää Suomesta -label (Produce of Finland) which is a voluntary designation of origin for Finnish packaged food products.

Get in touch: Hanna Larjavaara, Communications Manager, Expert in Food Education, hanna.larjavaara@ruokatieto.fi

University of Helsinki has several research programmes related to school meals, covering food education and nutritional sciences among other fields.  The project 'Promoting food sense through school meals (FOODSENSE, 2020-2022)' investigates the educational potential of school mealtimes in collaboration with school food services and subject based teaching in a secondary school context. The study leans on a participatory action research framework and is executed in one pilot school in the Uusimaa region, Finland.

Get in touch: Kristiina Janhonen, Postdoctoral Researcher, kristiina.janhonen@helsinki.fi