The ‘sweet bun law’ and the politics of school food in Poland

Abstract

The post-socialist transition and rapid neoliberal changes, as well as European Union’s guidelines, have transformed school food polices in Poland in the last decades. This chapter demonstrates how they have moved from a welfare and social equity mechanism to a biomedical governance mechanism. It locates the main regulations and ongoing debates about school food within the changing socio-cultural context, particularly focusing on the case of the so called ‘sweet bun law’ introduced in 2015. The chapter is based on ethnographic research conducted in primary schools in Warsaw in 2012–2013, and further research on food policies and the social dynamics of childhood obesity conducted in 2018–2019. It analyses the shift in state’s discursive focus from providing food to children to an emphasis on limiting their food consumption, and the implications this change brings.