School meals
Special diets are provided for by ensuring that a child will not be exposed to ingredients unsuited to them. Special diets are available for a child for medical reasons and usually require a doctor's statement
Looking for Upper secondary student meals and menus >
Menus
We plan our menus based on the national nutrition guidelines. We apply rotating six-week menus in our schools. When planning our menus, we pay attention to seasonal ingredients, national holidays and other celebrations. We use ‘food teams’ to review the students’ favourite foods at regular basis and we take the students’ requests into account whenever possible. We also consider the results from our customer satisfaction surveys when planning the menus. You can view our menus via the links below!
Vantti menus >
Vantti schools: Askisto, Havukoski, Hiekkaharju, Hämeenkylä, Ilola, Itä-Hakkila, Jokiniemi, Jokiranta, Jokivarsi, Kaivoksela, Kannisto, Keimolanmäki, Kivimäki, Korso, Kulomäki, Kytöpuisto, Lehtikuusi, Leppäkorpi, Länsimäki, Martinlaakso, Mikkola, Nikinmäki, Pähkinärinne, Päiväkumpu, Rajakylä, Rajatorppa, Rekola, Rekolanmäki, Ruusuvuori, Seutula, Simonkallion, Simonkylän, Uomarinne, Viertola, Vierumäki, Ylästö
Palmia menus >
Palmia schools: Aurinkokivi, Kartanonkoski, Kuusikko, Veromäki, Vantaan kansainvälinen koulu
-
A main course with side dishes
-
A salad/shred salad, served with a dressing
-
Crispbread or soft bread with a spread
-
Milk, buttermilk and water as beverages
Soft bread, cold cuts and a fruit are served with soups and porridges when they are serves as the main course. Additionally, soups are served with fresh vegetable side dish and porridges with berry soup.
Students can also buy healthy and balanced snacks in many of our schools. Snacks are served when there are at least ten or more interested buyers. The length of the students’ school days determines on how many days snacks are sold. A snack can help students through the final afternoon school hours and the after-school hobbies. Snacks are often sold in the school canteen during the two o’clock break. Snack prices range from €0.50 to €2.00. The available snacks include foods such as fruit, yoghurt, sandwiches etc. You can find a list of schools selling snacks on the city’s website.
In several of our schools, student can pay for their snacks with the ‘City card’ that can be picked from Vantaa Info service points in exchange for a deposit. It is recommended that the application form for a city card is printed from the city’s website before picking up the card. The form is also available from Vantaa Info service point, if necessary. Other payment methods are in use in a few of the schools. You will find out which payment methods are available in your school from your snack vendor.
School student’s city card
City card can be topped up with value that can be used by the student to pay for their snack.
A school student’s city card can be picked up from Vantaa Info service point. An application form must be filled in for acquiring a school student’s city card. The form must have a guardian’s signature and the school student must prove their identify when picking up the card. The school student can also prove their identity with a Kela card. A deposit will be charged for the city card.
More information about vantaa-info opening hours >
City card application Member of municipality (514761e)(pdf, 1.32 MB)The food served at day care centres, schools and educational institutes is suitable for children and young people with diabetes. It is regular, healthy food that can be recommended for everyone. Used in moderation, also sugar can be part of a diabetic’s diet. Eating is always part of treating diabetes.
An individual treatment plan will be compiled for the school student in his or her own treatment unit, and this includes the meal plan when necessary. The meal plan will have the quantities of carbohydrate-rich foods per each meal as well as the mealtimes. The meal plan must be delivered to the school’s public health nurse. In addition to the day’s main meals, diabetics often also require a snack during the morning and/or afternoon. The purpose of snacks is to distribute the amount of food the school student needs in a way that ensures that their blood sugar does not become too high after a meal or fall too low before their next meal. Students may sometimes need food or a beverage that quickly increases their blood sugar levels to treat their hypoglycaemia (blood sugar levels falling too low). How to serve these should be agreed on when making the snack arrangements.
Good snack options include sandwiches, a Karelian pastry, snack biscuits and bars that are rich in fibre, muesli, high-fibre cereals, smoothies or kissel. It is good to have options so that the students will not skip their snack due to limited options. If the student’s treatment does not require extra snacks, the school and the home should agree on the matter between themselves. Sometimes the students want to bring a snack from home, and this means that the student is then responsible for storing and portioning the snack.
Policy in Vantaa: The parents ensure and agree with the day care centre’s or school’s staff on serving snacks and what to do in case of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar). The day care director or the school’s public health nurse will deliver the snack information to the person in charge of snack planning in the kitchen, including instructions in the meal plan on how to serve the snack, the portions needed and the snack times. Arrangements for beverages or foods suitable for treating sudden hypoglycaemia should be made at the same time.
Over the course of a school year, a few theme days are usually held at schools and educational institutes, which can also be seen in the school canteen and as theme-specific foods or even decorations.
We will take the feedback into account when we develop school meals and services. If possible, please give your feedback directly to a representative of the kitchen personnel. If necessary, you can also give written feedback via the feedback form on the city’s website.
Special diets
The kitchens prepare special diets for school children and students needing them. As a guardian, you need to deliver a signed notification of the school student’s need for a special diet and other potential dietary restrictions to the public health nurse at the school, using a form intended for this purpose. The school nurse will inform the kitchen. If the special diet is necessary for medical reasons, a valid doctor’s statement must be attached to the form. The doctor’s statement must be renewed every year so that we can be certain that the special diet is still suitable and also to make sure that there are no unnecessary diet restrictions imposed on the child.
Lactose-free milk beverage is available to anyone needing it, but this also requires a special diet notification.
A notification form for a special diet and the related instructions are available below. The form can also be requested from the school’s public health nurse when necessary.
Vegan diet can be reported with a pupil and student information notification distributed at schools and educational institutes.
Notification of special diet Schools and educational institutions (523098e)(pdf, 158.8 KB)
Environmental responsibility of school meals and participation
The basis of food served at schools is healthiness and tastiness. The children and young people will be able to explore various foods and the work of food services through different activity units offered by meal service providers. There are six of these units.
The meal service providers will bring the season’s different root vegetables, berries, fruit and other vegetables for the children or students to taste.
The meal service providers will arrange an expert to talk about healthy and environmentally friendly food to the children, the students, the staff and/or the parents.
The children and young people will spend 1 or 2 days becoming familiar with the kitchen’s operations. They will have assisting duties in the kitchen based on their age level and they will get to learn about everyday kitchen work through practice.
Parents will be served school food on a day chosen by the day care centre, school or educational institute in question. The goal is to help alleviate any wrong beliefs the parents may have about school meals.
Children and young people will prepare a food panel for the kitchen staff to develop the unit’s meal service. The panel is a platform for discussion on topics that interest children and young people and for considering possible areas of improvement together.
A class or another group in the unit will organise a shared campaign together with the kitchen staff. This campaign must support the unit’s and the meal service provider’s goals.
The food lines in the canteen have a ‘Hiilidiili’ label. This label signifies the streamlined carbon footprint of the main course, which is 30% smaller than that of an average dish. The purpose of the label is to highlight the environmental effects of meals and to guide the students to make choices that are better for the earth.
A new participatory channel will be introduced in the beginning of 2022 via the OsallistuvaVantaa online service. Many various surveys will be conducted via the online service, and students will be able to share their ideas and thoughts about developing menus and mealtimes even better than before.