School meals in Östra Göinge are something out of the ordinary

Some municipalities struggle to decide what to serve in school dining-halls.

In Östra Göinge it is rather a matter of what NOT to serve, if anything. The newspaper is tipped off by one of the teachers at Västerskolan in Knislinge that the school dining-hall there is something out of the ordinary.

And we know straight away exactly what she (eller he?) means when we pop into the dining-hall 40 minutes before the first pupils arrive. The atmosphere, the food and how it is served remind you of a classy golf-course restaurant or an inn rather than a school dining-hall.

This particular day the menu consists of chicken casserole with feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, which can be eaten with either pasta or fried potatoes. There is also a vegetarian dish, creamed lentils with spinach.

So there are at least two dishes every day, of which one is vegetarian.Three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, pasta is served as well.

In addition there is fresh home-baked bread every day, salad, fruit and a 'try-it-out- table'

– No-one is made to try out something new. We just want people to enjoy their meals here, says Ann-Charlotte, 'Lotta', Persson, who is head chef at the school.

The big change came in 2017, when the school got its own kitchen instead of simply receiving food from a central kitchen.Now she and the other two chefs, Marie Filipsson och her niece Isabell Filipsson, cook meals for the school's 230 pupils as well as the Smultronstället nursery school.

There are several reasons for this satisfaction. The Göinge model, that the people involved in the work have a great responsibility and freedom to do things as well as they possibly can - without overstepping their budget - and the leaders from the Meals section whom they praise very highly.

– Jenny Skagerholm is a really good boss. If we come to her with some new idea, she just says,'Go ahead',says Lotta Persson.

– She's simply the best, Marie Filipsson fills in.