Objective:

To identify and characterize initiatives that promote the purchase of locally-sourced foods to supply schools and the school centres carrying out the initiatives.

Method:

Exploratory, descriptive study based on secondary data and key informant reports. A search of governmental and non-governmental initiatives was carried out at the autonomous community level. Government initiatives were located through school feeding programmes in the different autonomous communities, their nutritional guides and representatives of the councils for education and agriculture. Non-governmental initiatives were found through their own websites and the snowball technique. Initiatives were analysed by their geographic distribution, organizational area (government vs. non-government), number of school centres carrying out the initiatives, management style and organic food purchase. A descriptive analysis of the data was carried out.

Results:

12 initiatives carried out by 318 schools (2.16% of all the schools with food service in Spain) were identified. Among these, 6 are governmental initiatives with a scope of 274 schools (1.86%), and 6 are non-governmental initiatives with a scope of 44 schools (0.30%). Most of these schools have a public management system in place (n = 284). All the initiatives provide for the purchase of organic food.

Conclusion:

Local food purchase initiatives in Spain have a limited reach. However, the existence of a state directive could support and strengthen the development of such initiatives, given that school commitment is greater when initiatives are driven by the public sector.

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