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Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPSLeibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS

School Meals as the Key to Health and Equal Opportunity

Epidemiological Methods and Etiological Research Prevention and Evaluation Press Research results

Children who eat well at school learn better and stay healthier. This is especially true for children who have less access to balanced meals at home. In 2018, Bremen launched a pilot project for healthy school meals. The Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS investigated the results of this project.

Children should be introduced to a variety of flavors, healthy cooking methods, and balanced meals from an early age. In reality, however, many of them eat highly processed foods too often—whether at a snack bar on the way home, as ready-made meals from the supermarket, or via food delivery services. What ends up on the table shapes habits for life. This can lead to obesity and other related health conditions. According to the KiGGS study by the Robert Koch Institute, 15.4 percent of children aged 3 to 17 are overweight, and 5.9 percent are obese—one in seven children in the country.

“Many children don’t learn about varied meals and good nutrition at home; they need other settings to gain that experience. Daycare and school are exactly those settings,” explains PD Dr. Antje Hebestreit, head of the Behavior and Health research group at BIPS. She adds: “Children spend many hours a day at school. What’s served there plays a decisive role in whether children learn to eat healthily. It’s one of the most important levers we have.”

First Systematic Study of School Meals in Bremen

Hebestreit has been working for years to understand precisely this lever. Since October 2024, she has led the GENAU project—Healthy and Sustainable Institutional Food Service in Bremen Schools. It is the first systematic study of school meals in Bremen: What actually ends up on the plate? How much of it meets the recommendations of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) for school meals?

The background to this is a political initiative that Bremen ambitiously launched years ago. In February 2018, the Bremen Senate adopted the so-called Action Plan 2025 for the City of Bremen. A phased program designed to raise the city’s entire public food service system to high quality standards and gradually increase the use of organic products to up to 100 percent. Bremen was thus the first German city to adopt such a resolution.

Now that the Action Plan is formally coming to an end, the crucial question arises: What has come of it? The BIPS is attempting to answer this very question with the GENAU project. The GENAU project, funded by the Senator for Environment, Climate, and Science, examines and evaluates the menus and composition of lunches at secondary schools based on the quality standards of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) and determines the proportion of organically produced foods. In addition, BIPS is funding a project that focuses on acceptance and implementation, led by PD Dr. Sarah Forberger. It examines the structural conditions of school meals: What do students, school administrators, caterers, and authorities have to say about this? What is working well, and what isn’t?

The main survey wave took place in November and December 2025—deliberately timed to coincide with the end of the action plan. The results are mixed: “On average, food providers in the state of Bremen met 57 percent of the evaluated DGE frequency criteria for the mixed-diet menu and 62 percent for the vegetarian menu. That’s more than half, but also significantly less than what would be possible,” says Dr. Maike Wolters, coordinator of the study at BIPS. Implementation is particularly challenging when it comes to high-fat fish, whole-grain products, and nuts or oilseeds.

High Proportion of Organic Foods

The results regarding the proportion of organic foods are positive: In the city of Bremen, where the 2025 Action Plan was in effect, the average proportion of organically produced foods out of the total amount used was 65 percent. In Bremerhaven, which was not subject to the 2025 Action Plan, however, the figure stands at seven percent. Wolters emphasizes that the figures on compliance with quality criteria as well as on the proportion of organically produced food should be interpreted with caution because not all suppliers were able to provide complete data. “But the trend is clear.”

Eleven out of twelve food providers that supply secondary public schools in the state of Bremen participated in the survey. This is a remarkably high participation rate, demonstrating that the project is being taken seriously by both the providers and the school authority. “The fact that the Ministry of Environment and Science and the school authorities are collaborating so well across departments is anything but a given in Germany,” Hebestreit praised, viewing this as an encouraging sign: “Only when schools, caterers, and authorities pull together can we reach our goal. Bremen shows that this is possible.”

What’s Next

GENAU is not yet complete. The third round of data collection is currently underway. It aims to show how the situation has developed half a year after the action plan ended. In addition, data from both subprojects will be consolidated. This will help answer the question of whether—and why—students, teachers, and food service providers accept the meals and the guidelines, because without acceptance from authorities, schools, and food service providers, even the best school meals will go uneaten. In addition, the team is calculating the model costs and climate impact costs resulting from the transition: What would it cost to switch to bio-regional (or organic) products? And what obstacles stand in the way? “What we’re seeing here isn’t a problem unique to Bremen,” says Hebestreit. “The question of how we can truly improve school meals in Germany is a national one. Bremen is just the testing ground right now.”

The Senate’s final report on the implementation of the 2025 Action Plan can be found here.

BIPS – Health Research in the Service of People

The population is at the center of our research. As an epidemiological research institute, we see our mission as identifying the causes of health problems and developing new concepts for disease prevention. Our research provides the foundation for societal decisions. It informs the public about health risks and contributes to a healthy living environment.

BIPS is a member of the Leibniz Association, which comprises 96 independent research institutions. The focus of the Leibniz Institutes ranges from the natural, engineering, and environmental sciences through the economic, spatial, and social sciences to the humanities. Leibniz Institutes address issues of social, economic, and ecological relevance. Due to their national significance, the federal and state governments jointly fund the institutes of the Leibniz Association. The Leibniz Institutes employ approximately 20,000 people, including 10,000 researchers.