No special meals for Muslim children at Helsinki and Espoo municipal playgrounds
Lactose intolerance only recognised special diet for park meals
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By Anu Ilomäki
A queue of children clutching plastic plates winds through the Suvela residents’ park in spite of a light drizzle. Three-year-old Salma Heib gets chicken pasta on her plate, after which she and her mother Katri Suhonen sit down near the pool.
Suhonen brings Salma to the park for summer lunch almost every day, except on Monday, when the meal always has pork - something that is not in the Muslim diet that the family observes.
In the summer, free food is offered to children playing in municipal playgrounds of Espoo and Helsinki. Each day there is only one item on the menu, and no options are available on days when the food contains pork.
"Naturally, it is a matter of money as well. Costs increase if we have to have different types of food. However, the biggest reasons for having just one choice is the amount of personnel, maintaining an efficient flow, and the fact that children do not announce their participation in playground lunch in advance", says Titta Tossavainen, head of Espoo day care services.
Preparation of food for summer playground lunches costs Espoo about EUR 200,000. The most important aspect from Tossavainen’s point of view is an efficient flow. The meals need to be dished out quickly.
Serving more than one type of meal would require more personnel. About 2,500 children eat each day in the 14 neighbourhood playgrounds in Espoo. Tossavainen emphasises that the city cannot take just one dietary restriction into consideration.
"If we removed pork from the list, there would always be children who cannot eat beef, for instance. In addition, there are allergies and other restrictions."
Playground lunches are a considered compromise: all of the meals are low in lactose.
"Then they are suitable for most. We know that we cannot take everyone into consideration, but it is a fairly small group for whom park food is not suitable, Tossavainen says.
About 14 per cent of the children in municipal day care in Espoo have some kind of food restriction based on allergies, family choice, or religion. Four per cent of these are lactose intolerant.
To avoid confusion, pork is served in Espoo always on Mondays. In Helsinki pork is served about once a week on random days.
Menus can be seen in advance so that the children and their parents can prepare for days when they must bring their own lunches with them. Many Muslim families use the Suvela playground.
"Many of the Muslims do not come here on Mondays. We are not complaining, though, because it is wonderful that a service like this exists", says Katri Suhonen.
Pirjo Ritamo, Helsinki’s leading director of playgrounds says that supervisors ask unaccompanied children what they are allowed to eat.
"For instance, immigrant children are usually quite aware of what their religion allows them to eat, but it is the task of the supervisors to ask the children if they can eat pork, for instance", Ritamo says.
No such inquiries are made in Espoo. The ingredients of the meals are listed in a folder for the parents to see, and personnel assume that the children know what they are allowed to eat.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.6.2007
ANU ILOMÄKI / Helsingin Sanomat
anu.ilomaki@hs.fi
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| 19.6.2007 - THIS WEEK |
 No special meals for Muslim children at Helsinki and Espoo municipal playgrounds |
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