117 Campus Alliance: Make Lunch Organic for 32 yuan!
Hsinchu County and City have a road numbered 117, connecting the most bustling downtown area of Hsinchu with the remote rural townships along the northwest coast: Hukou and Xinfeng. Although these are rural townships, three elementary school principals at the end of Route 117 have formed a campus organic nutritious lunch alliance. Out of the five days each week, not only can they serve organic lunches to students on two days, but by the end of the year they can also use the surplus funds to purchase organic soybeans and make soy milk for students as breakfast.
These three elementary schools are: Hukou Township's Hexing Elementary School, and Xinfeng Township's Fulong Elementary School and Fuxing Elementary School. They all happen to be located within a three-kilometer radius at the end of Route 117, far from the prime districts of Hsinchu County and City, and also on the outskirts of their respective townships.
But these three elementary schools on the edge of Hsinchu County have become widely known because of their organic nutritious lunches. Not only have some parents given up downtown elementary schools to bring their children here to study, but even in the prime district of Zhubei City, parents of elementary school students have called to ask how they can get the schools their children attend to also offer organic nutritious lunches.
↑Members of the "117" Organic Campus Alliance: from left, Fuxing Elementary School principal Liao Jinghua, Fulong Elementary School principal Wu Mingzhu, Hexing Elementary School principal Wu You, Hexing Parents Association vice president Wang Guozhong, and Hexing General Affairs Director Huang Wending.
Organic nutritious lunches made these small rural schools become the focus of attention for downtown parents, not by throwing money at the problem, but by implementing a "zero food waste" policy, so that even with only 32 yuan per meal, these three schools can still enjoy organic meals twice a week, and still have more than enough funds.
The first school on Route 117 to promote organic nutritious lunches was Hukou Township's Hexing Elementary School. More than five years ago, they received guidance from Wu Meimao, associate researcher at the Development Center for Biotechnology, and took the first step toward organic meals. Because of personal health reasons, Wu Meimao values organic ingredients. Drawing on her expertise in biotechnology, she helped Indigenous communities in Fuxing Township, Taoyuan County, and Jianshi Township, Hsinchu County, grow organic vegetables, hoping to revitalize the indigenous hometown economy.
In order to find a market channel for organic vegetables, Wu Meimao thought that if campus nutritious lunches could use organic ingredients, not only could children eat healthily and safely, but indigenous farmers could also have a stable source of income and be more willing to engage in organic production. Based on the concepts of "local production for local consumption" and "shortening food miles," Wu Meimao prioritized cooperation with schools in the Hsinchu area. Among them, Hexing Elementary School principal Wu You was the most willing to cooperate.
↑Healthy ingredients such as red-yolk eggs, ten-grain rice, and organic vegetables make the "117" Organic Campus Alliance's nutritious lunches enviable.
Wu You said that she herself comes from a farming family in Xinfeng Township. Many of her farming relatives developed cancer from long-term pesticide poisoning, so she places special importance on organic and safe ingredients. Therefore, when she heard Wu Meimao's idea, she agreed to cooperate without hesitation.
However, promoting organic nutritious lunches was not achieved overnight. In addition to communicating with teachers at the school, Wu You also took the opportunity of parent day events to invite Wu Meimao to hold discussions with parents. At first, older farmer parents looked at the school's plan to feed children organic meals with skepticism, believing based on personal experience that vegetables could not possibly grow without pesticide spraying. But some younger parents strongly agreed, and after the discussions ended, many mothers even surrounded Wu Meimao to ask questions, saying they would also try growing organic vegetables at home.
From then on, the seeds of organic thinking spread on campus, not only starting with nutritious lunches. Teachers began planning food education courses, integrating concepts of fair trade, food miles, organic agriculture, and the environment, and also opened vegetable gardens and compost sites on campus to let children experience these things through hands-on practice. Outside school, young farming parents gradually converted their own fields to organic cultivation, without using chemical pesticides.
↑Along with the implementation of Campus Organic Day, Hexing Elementary School also planned a series of food education courses to put the organic concept into practice.
But five years ago, the Hsinchu County Government subsidy for elementary school nutritious lunches was only 28 yuan per meal, while Hexing Elementary School's organic meal cost about 40 yuan. For the shortfall, besides Wu Dongjie, CEO of the Green Formosa Front Association, soliciting donations of 5 yuan per meal from companies in the Hsinchu Science Park, the rest relied on Wu You's "zero food waste" initiative, recording the amount of food waste generated each day and working backward to adjust the quantity of ingredients purchased, achieving zero food waste and saving nutritious lunch funds.
Huang Wending, general affairs director of Hexing Elementary School, who is responsible for purchasing nutritious lunch ingredients, said that the school's daily nutritious lunch cost is about 5,000 yuan, and organic meals cost another 1,000 yuan per day. But through the "zero food waste" initiative, about 300-plus yuan can be saved each day. These saved nutritious lunch funds, accumulated over time, are already enough to support the school's one-day-per-week organic nutritious lunch. Therefore, in the later stage of Hexing Elementary School's Campus Organic Day, it no longer needed to rely on fundraising to operate.
↑By recording the amount of nutritious lunch food waste each day and adjusting the quantity of ingredients purchased, the goal of zero food waste was ultimately achieved, avoiding unnecessary waste.
By the time the Hsinchu County Government gradually raised the elementary school nutritious lunch subsidy from 28 yuan per meal to 32 yuan, Hexing Elementary School still implemented the "zero food waste" initiative, and the funds saved were already enough to add one more day of organic meals per week. Even near the end of the year, in addition to eating organic lunches two days a week, Hexing Elementary School still had surplus funds to purchase organic soybeans and ask the kitchen mothers to make hot soy milk for all teachers and students as breakfast in the morning, fully returning the surplus nutritious lunch funds to the children.
Hexing Elementary School's actions also spurred nearby Xinfeng Township's Fuxing Elementary School and Fulong Elementary School to respond.
Fuxing Elementary School joined in 2008. Principal Liao Jinghua originally served at Shilei Elementary School in Jianshi Township. During his time as principal in an Indigenous community, Liao Jinghua personally observed that indigenous farmers worked hard to grow organic vegetables but faced difficulties in production and marketing. Therefore, after he was transferred to Fuxing Elementary School, when he learned that the organic vegetables for Hexing Elementary School's nutritious lunches came from crops grown by parents at Shilei Elementary School, he joined the organic nutritious lunch effort without hesitation.
Liao Jinghua said that in the past, tribal farmers, pressured by livelihood, were accustomed to conventional farming methods using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. After years of effort, they had finally managed to convert to organic. If campus nutritious lunch ingredients could use organic vegetables grown by indigenous farmers, it would not only support the tribal economy and encourage farmers to continue growing organically, but also positively help the health of students and teachers.
↑Organic agricultural products from indigenous tribal communities are sorted and consolidated by the Indigenous Peoples Commission and supplied every Tuesday and Friday as nutritious lunch ingredients for the "117 Organic Campus Alliance."
As for Xinfeng Township's Fulong Elementary School, although it promoted Campus Organic Day at the same time as Hexing Elementary School, it was only after principal Wu Mingzhu took office in August last year that the zero food waste initiative was actively implemented. Principal Wu Mingzhu is the younger sister of Hexing Elementary School principal Wu You, and she is very clear about the challenges of promoting organic nutritious lunches and the supporting measures needed, such as conceptual communication and educational advocacy. Therefore, in order to implement the zero food waste initiative and observe students' dining conditions, Fulong Elementary School chose a different approach from other schools that eat in classrooms, and at noon takes students uniformly to the cafeteria to eat.
Wu Mingzhu said that by having the whole school eat together in the cafeteria, administrative staff and teachers can observe children's dining situations and make adjustments and provide guidance. Through peer interaction and encouragement, children are also less likely to be picky eaters.
Because of the exchange of experience and cooperation among the three schools, on the two Campus Organic Days each Tuesday and Friday, the logistics vehicle of the Taiwan Indigenous College Promotion Association, responsible for consolidating organic ingredients, delivers organic and healthy ingredients produced by indigenous tribal communities in places such as Hsinchu, Taoyuan, Hualien-Taitung, Nantou, and Chiayi.
↑Fulong Elementary School conducts food education through collective dining by all teachers and students, gradually achieving the goal of zero food waste. (Provided by Wu Mingzhu)
Walking into the school kitchen, one can see that the eggs used in organic lunches are "red-yolk eggs" with orange-red yolks. The staple food used is organic ten-grain rice, which costs three times as much as ordinary cheap white rice. Although the green vegetables show signs of insect damage, they are guaranteed healthy, non-toxic, and land-friendly. The organic bean sprouts are slender but crisp and substantial in texture. The meat uses healthy pork from screen houses in Hualien.
Wang Guozhong, vice president of the Hexing Elementary School Parents Association, said that organic vegetables taste crisper and more substantial, with balanced nutrition. Because Hexing's results in promoting organic lunches were quite good, when he chose a school for his child to attend, he decided to forgo a downtown school and enroll at Hexing.
Since the three-school alliance's campus organic meal policy was implemented, it has not only won recognition from teachers and parents associations, but has also gradually attracted the attention of the Hsinchu County Government, which has tried to incorporate the concept of "local production for local consumption" into the procurement of elementary school nutritious lunch ingredients. At present, the county government has first selected a total of 8 elementary schools in Zhubei City and Hukou Township to cooperate with local vegetable production and marketing groups in a pilot program.
↑Hexing children eating organic nutritious lunches feel it is one of the happiest times of the week.
Wu Dongjie, CEO of the Green Formosa Front Association, pointed out that the true meaning of promoting campus organic lunches is not only to let children enjoy truly "nutritious" lunches, but even touches on issues such as fair trade, food miles, organic agriculture, and supporting the indigenous hometown economy. Through a series of conceptual communication and "zero food waste" educational advocacy, our children will truly care about the land and experience the value of food and not wasting it. The case of cooperation among Hexing, Fulong, and Fuxing Elementary Schools is well worth reference by other schools as well as education and agricultural administration units.
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