Collaboration opportunities

The debate on school meals in Denmark is intense at the moment. But how should it be arranged? Should it be integrated in the teaching? And what about gardening and cultivation literacy ? Opinions are plentiful. This project analyses SoMe posts, Editorials, commentaries and debate posts from last 2 years and uses a discourse analytical approach to understand the motivations of different stakeholders in the debate about school food.  The project uses NVivo and or Quirkos text analytical technology.

Relevance:  This project study will give a new insight into how public opinion is shaping the mobilization in the domain of school food. It will feed well into the decisions that is expected soon to be taken on the future of school meals.

Paid or voluntary opportunity: Voluntary/nonpaid
Time period: Fall 2025
Contact information: Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, Professor, Urban Food Systems Transformation, IGN, bemi@ign.ku.d

Handing over the responsibility of public food for our kids is increasingly taking place in welfare societies. In Denmark at launched arrangements for parent paid food in nurseries and kindergarten has existed since 2009 and also for school kids that debate is evolving around public responsibilities for serving sustainable and healthy food at school. One of the most important topics here is the discussion of who would pay for the food. In universal free and collective school meal arrangements meals are paid by the public. In other cases it is paid by the parents in which case it becomes a opt-in opt-out solution. The practical implication of this is that not every kid will then be eating. For the Danish parent paid lunch arrangement scheme the opt-in opt-out system is managed by letting parents and kindergarten/nursery boards decide every second year. However we are now having data that shows a tendency towards  the fact that once parent has decided to opt in they continue to decide so. In other words there is evidence that once parent paid lunch arrangement scheme has been established they  will tend to survive. That also means that continuing voting about them could be a potential waste of resources. In is the data set where we have inputs from all over Denmark and the aim is to test the above hypothesis.

Relevance:  This project study will give a new insight The future of welfare system provided foods for kids and important information about payment opt in and opt out options. In other words will parent payment add value or is it a waste of time?

Paid or voluntary opportunity: Voluntary/nonpaid
Time period: Fall 2025
Contact information: Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, Professor, Urban Food Systems Transformation, IGN, bemi@ign.ku.d

Are Generation Z the future frontrunners in the transition to a plant based diet? Studies show that young consumers seems to buy more plant based foods than the older generation. Can this segment be a key to a more successful transition? The 3P project aims to understand to what extent the school, the teaching and a potential future food service at school can act as levers for such a development. Its builds on an existing data set with key stakeholders so that the work will be purely analytical with only a few additional interviews to be carried out. The project uses NVivo and or Quirkos text analytical technology.

Relevance:  This project study will give a new insight into the future of plant based foods and how that agenda fits with the the mobilization in the domain of school food. It will feed well into the decisions that is expected soon to be taken on the future of school meals.

Paid or voluntary opportunity: Voluntary/nonpaid
Time period: Fall 2025
Contact information: Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, Professor, Urban Food Systems Transformation, IGN, bemi@ign.ku.dk