Various district municipalities across the Baltic countries have put food and sustainability as a priority in their long term regional action plans. In order to support and accelerate the transition, we developed and tested several Farm to School strategic approaches, and fostered stronger relationships between schools, farmers and municipalities, helping to grow resilient regional food systems.
Sustainable school meals with Farm to School programmes as catalysts for food system change is a lever to enable large-scale (integrated) food sustainability transitions. Through the transnational cooperation, we tackled three challenges that are key to advancing food systems' sustainability; essential involvement, collaboration and having a common goal from municipalities.

What is Farm to School?
Farm to school enriches the connection communities have with local, healthy food and food producers by changing food purchasing and educational activities at schools and preschools. Farm to school activities and policies are unique to location, and can be defined in a multitude of ways. For the purposes of this evaluation framework, the core elements of farm to school activities are:

1. Procurement of local and regional food products;
2. Gardening, based at schools and preschools; and
3. Education, food and farm related.

The “BSR food Coalition” project has showcased the importance and the need of long-term Farm to School programme (FTSP) development in the Baltic Sea Region. The project has become a wake-up call and a catalyst for school food discussions and interventions through the transnational cooperation and the piloting activities. Various initiatives in- and outside the project activities has been tested with own solutions on improving the current school food system, have also been identified in project regions.

Achievements
Thanks to the BSR Food Coalition project, one of the municipalities in Klaipeda region, the Kretinga municipality has set aside funds in the 2025 budget to move away from private catering in one of its schools and rebuild its own kitchen as a starting point for a Farm to School model.

As a result of the piloting activities of these two years, all 42 educational institutions in Võru County achieved the first level of the organic catering ecolabel of 20-50%, and the use of local organic raw materials from Võru County – on a Farm to School basis, has been established.

In Tartu region, a Farm to School action plan titled "Action Plan for Promoting Food Education, Catering, and Local and Organic Food in Tartu County Schools and Kindergartens 2025-2028," is being developed and set to be finalised on February 21, 2025.

Remaining challenges
The implementation of several pilots in the five regions between May 2023 till April 2024, showcased building a Farm to School system in the Baltic countries requires more communication, direct contacts with local farmers for schools, and greater involvement of municipalities in legislative amendments, as well as help in creating shorter food supply chains.

Solution
Farm to School programmes are the solution, a key strategy to strengthening the value chain in local and regional food systems. The Farm to School Mission-Oriented Framework has been customised for the Baltic countries, and is aimed to foster the development of a community of practice, to support replication, adaptation and expansion of successful Farm to School programme models. The framework has been developed for use by local and regional municipalities, programme practitioners, policy-makers and development partners, as well as civil society and community-based organisations, and the private catering sector.

Read about our story on how we did it here, and if you've missed it, listen to the episodes of our Walk the School Food Talk.