Good practice for Sustainable Food Systems in a circular economy perspective: La Buona Mensa - Qualità e Servizi: Inclusive short food supply chain canteen for school meals

Calenzano (18,270 inh), Campi Bisenzio (48,000 inh.), Carmignano (14,600 inh.), Signa (19,000 inh), Sesto Fiorentino (48,750 inh.) and Barberino del Mugello (11,000 inh.) are 6 municipalities in the region of Tuscany, Italy, spread between the provinces of Florence and Prato. Overall, they account for a population of nearly 160,000 people. The challenge that these 6 municipalities decided to embark on, and which they achieved to successfully meet, was to have a reliable publicly-owned company providing school meals to the children enrolled in daycare (0-3 years), kindergarten (3-6 years) and primary (6-10 years) education across the 6 municipalities. The challenge started in 2017 when, under the leadership of the then mayor of Sesto Fiorentino - Mr. Lorenzo Falchi - the search for a new manager for the company running the provision of school meals was launched. The vision was to set up a system which could offer good quality, healthy and tasty food to students in daycare, kindergarten and primary education, sourcing food from local producers, and hence sustainying the local economy and the local communities, creating an economy of relations around the service of food provision to schools. All this through a fully public service. In this model, tight connections are created between the local food producers, the food processors (the industrial canteen), the students and their families, the schools, the public authorities responsible for the provision of meals, and the natural environment. In this conception of “food community” (IT: comunità del cibo), culture, health, employment, society and environment are the five pillars around which the concept and the practice have been built.