There are many institutional, economic, social, and psychological barriers when it comes to implementing high-quality criteria into the public procurement and catering services. StratKIT+ project addresses these challenges by providing new additions to the previously developed Public Meal Toolkit, which helps implementing healthy and sustainable food into the public sector within the Baltic Sea Region while providing a community platform for the stakeholders.

Public meal organisations need support, guidance, and networks in incorporating environmental targets and strategies to their main task of serving nutritionally adequate meals. Authorities need more knowledge on food and public meals to prioritize better and send right messages to the food service providers. Addition to this, stakeholders need more support and tools to tackle different crisis situations that affect the public kitchens. There is a variety of actors that offer support but the information provided would benefit from practical examples with good accessibility. This is what will be developed in the new Sustainable Public Meal Toolkit+.

Public meal stakeholders lack multiple resources (e.g. time, knowledge, funding, support) in the sustainable development of public meals. With the toolkit BSR public meal actors can cooperate by sharing knowledge and ideas related to different public meal solutions through practical testing organised by the StratKIT+ project partners. These pilots have been successful way to share knowledge with stakeholders for example through organic farm visits, cooking trainings and workshops.

Practical testing and implementation of the toolkit helps to add motivation and commitment to the sustainability goals that are challenging to reach with the limited resources. Municipalities and food service providers should also be able to respond quickly to challenges affected by legal regulations, social changes and different crises, while at the same time not being afraid or reluctant to become local pioneers in GPP or vegan public meals. Addressing it all, StratKIT+ will contribute with a variety of ways to increased sustainability of public meals in BSR.