Summer|Henna Tanskanen and her children were disappointed when there was no vegetarian food in the park catering. According to the city of Helsinki, it is unlikely that summer meals will become vegetarian.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The city of Helsinki offers a free lunch for children under 16 in the summer.
Vegetarian food is offered only 1-2 days a week.
There is more vegetarian food in park dining than five years ago.
Park dining is an act of equality by the city of Helsinki: everyone under the age of 16 gets a hot lunch for free in the summer and everyone is satisfied.
Or at least you could imagine.
Henna Tanskanen and her 10-year-old children were disappointed this week when there was no vegetarian food available for the child at the Linja playground’s summer dining. Danskanen’s child is a vegetarian for ethical reasons.
“I don’t think we are the only family that has to think about this,” says Tanskanen.
Helsinki according to its policy, from January 2022, the city will offer only vegetarian food or responsibly caught local fish at its events. Because of this, Tanskanen found it particularly surprising that there was no vegetarian food available.
HS asked the city of Helsinki’s food service expert about it Sirpa from Jalovaara. He says that the decision to serve vegetarian food and local fish does not apply to park meals, but only to ordered meals.
Jalovaara points out that there are now twice as many vegetarian dishes in Helsinki’s park dining than, for example, five years ago. We aim to offer vegetarian and vegan food one to two times a week.
Vegetarians however, they are a minority among park diners. According to Jalovaara, the menus are made based on the wishes of children and parents. The most popular dishes are Italian stew, fish soup and vegetable purees. Many children are picky.
“It has been noticed that there are somewhat fewer diners when there is a vegetarian day,” says Jalovaara.
According to Jalovaara, it is unlikely that there would be a vegetarian option alongside the mixed meal. It would be unecological, as more food would end up wasted.
“We’ve been trying for many years to think about how we could offer vegetarians food in the park as well,” Jalovaara points out. For example, the vegetarian version of Italian stew has been a success.
Danish the child was present at the park meal with his picky eater friend. When the friend stayed in the park to eat, the child went to the convenience store to buy himself lunch.
Tanskanen reflects that not all children necessarily know how to come up with such a solution on their own. Many only know the route from home to the park and back.
So there is something to fix.
“Basically, I’m really happy with this service, but this is a small example of how park dining will become even better and support Helsinki’s goals for ecology.”
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