It’s time for Christmas dinner in the canteens of Tournefeuille, west of Toulouse
It’s a tradition, on the eve of the school holidays, school children and extracurricular and school catering staff are entitled to a Christmas meal in the canteen. Menus revisited to be festive, gourmet while maintaining nutritional quality. In Tournefeuille, a town in the west of Toulouse, 2,800 meals were served to children attending kindergarten and primary school this Thursday noon. Menus concocted in the central kitchen of Tournefeuille, then delivered to schools. The central kitchen also supplies certain public nursing homes, autonomous residences which are also entitled to a Christmas meal.
France Bleu Occitanie was able to enjoy the Christmas meal alongside the children of the public elementary school Le Château:
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Patrick Garnier, the chef of the central kitchen, developed his menu a few months ago. You have to be attentive to the origin of the products, to the quality of the raw materials: 75% of the canteen’s products are labeled, 45% of the products are organic.
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On the menu: turkey, chestnuts, and chocolates
In the plates of the little ones: a minced turkey decorated with chestnuts and chestnuts, duchess potatoes, a cheese, a chocolate chouquette, a clementine, a papillote and a chocolate Santa Claus. Exceptionally, a Santa Claus serves orange Fanta to drink. The children are delighted.
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The mayor of Tournefeuille, Dominique Fouchier, explains that despite budgetary constraints and an increase in the cost of raw food materials this year, the municipality is “ramp-up in organic products, with an Ecocert level 2 label”. Canteen prices did not increase in 2022, they had been raised in 2021, with a scale of 10 different brackets depending on family income.
Meals invented by students from time to time
Alain Paul is the assistant delegate for school catering, he explains that the central kitchen of Tournefeuille has been renovated over several years. It makes it possible to prepare meals for schools, residents of nursing homes and children in nurseries. He clarifies that “pleasure” meals do not only take place at Christmas: “once every two months, a school defines its menu, the pupils choose what they want to eat, and the central kitchen prepares this meal which will be served to all the schools. We are not going to hide that often from burgers, fries, nuggets or donuts, but we balance all that. We have a canteen committee.”