Published on October 5, 2021
A local menu at the cafeteria of École des Ursulines
During the Les institutions mangent local! event, organized by Aliments du Québec from September 20 to 22, École des Ursulines in Québec City offered a fully Québec-themed menu: a snack featuring apples from local orchards and a homemade carrot cake for dessert.
“On that occasion, several children came to tell me the apples tasted better,” says Stéphanie Gervais, who has been in charge of food services for two and a half years. “We had posted signs all over the school explaining that the food came from here, so they made the connection. It’s in elementary school that we need to start raising awareness, because in a few years, they’ll be the ones taking over.”
During events like this, the private school reaches 600 students. Throughout the year, as part of the Aliments du Québec au menu – Institution program, for which it has been recognized since 2017, about 420 students are served.
“I listen to the children and ask them questions to create a menu that highlights what they enjoy most (meatballs, pasta, burgers, shepherd’s pie, etc.) while incorporating foods sourced from the province—keeping things balanced and full of flavor!” emphasizes Stéphanie Gervais.
This year, participating institutions faced greater challenges due to staff shortages, compounded by supply chain disruptions and reduced inventories from manufacturers and distributors.
“We want to make it simple by offering managers recipes they can integrate into their menus so they can choose what fits their clientele—there isn’t one single menu,” explains Marie-Chantal Lamothe, director at Aramark. Aramark was the first food service provider to be recognized by the program in 2016, even before a dedicated institutional stream was developed.
Lowering costs by increasing participation
“With more research, development, and participation, we could get better pricing, meaning everyone could include more Québec foods on their menus,” says Stéphanie Gervais. Each year, she aims to add more local ingredients to students’ plates and plans to involve the school more, particularly by discussing product varieties and origins.
The program offers two recognition options for institutions: by dish or through a supply study.
“To reach as many establishments as possible and keep things simple and approachable, we chose the dish-based recognition program, which requires offering at least five recognized dishes per cycle,” explains Marie-Chantal Lamothe. “However, we’ve started implementing the supply study approach with some institutions. It’s much more demanding because we need to extract purchase reports for all products.”
The targeted institutions are often those that have local sourcing values embedded in their sustainable development plans.
The Les institutions mangent local! event is an initiative of Aliments du Québec au menu and Équiterre, in collaboration with the Défi 100% local and the Québec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ).
