Krasnoyarsk deputies propose introducing a separate rate for those responsible for nutrition in city schools.
The situation with school meals was discussed by the City Council’s social policy commission. The auditor of the city Chamber of Control and Accounts, Vitaly Gabalyuk, said that a comprehensive audit of the effectiveness of the school nutrition system was carried out in the regional center. She showed significant improvements in the organization of this process.
Thus, there are fewer sanitary violations in school canteens, the number of complaints about the unpleasant smell in the rooms where students have breakfast and lunch, and about shortcomings in the design of the dining rooms has decreased. However, there are still unresolved problems. Survey participants noted that food in canteens can be tasteless and cold. At the same time, the fewest complaints are in schools that prepare their own food for children. There are currently 35 of them in the city. But the number of complaints against catering operators (now there are three of them – “Kulinar”, “Rich” and “Kraspit”, they provide breakfast and lunch to 88 schools in the city) has decreased. The companies are well staffed, but the lack of staff was one of the main problems that children and parents previously complained about.
Then the head of the main education department, Marina Aksyonova, told the deputies about the topic of school meals. She rated the system's performance as satisfactory. The improvement is facilitated by the systematic joint work of the city administration and municipal deputies, which, in particular, is aimed at modernizing catering units. For several years, major renovations have been carried out in kitchens and dining rooms in educational institutions. All engineering components are changing – from electrical systems to drainage and ventilation, kitchen equipment and furniture.
This contributes to the fact that vacancies are filled by professional personnel. In addition, schools organize internships for students from secondary specialized education institutions. What makes the system more effective is the double control of the food units. On the one hand, it is provided by schools, and on the other, by specialists from the main education department. Parents also continue to monitor the quality of food.
As for the complaints that come from participants in the educational process, we try to respond to them promptly. However, not all problems can be solved quickly. Despite the fact that new schools are being built in the city and existing ones are being renovated, educational institutions are still overcrowded. So, in an educational institution for 700 children there may be only 60 seats in the canteen. It is very difficult to feed so many children in such a small area. Hence one of the most common complaints about the school nutrition system is that many children simply do not have time to eat in the canteen. However, as Marina Aksyonova noted, a good trend has emerged in the city: every year there are fewer and fewer students who run to the nearest supermarket during breaks for a snack, more and more children prefer to buy hot meals at school instead of store food.
It is worth noting that catering operators and “independent” schools (those that prepare their own food) are trying to create optimal conditions in order to provide high-quality and tasty food to primary school students and children from preferential categories. These guys eat organized meals on a budget. But here the situation is not yet ideal. Many children refuse food offered on a cyclical 10-day menu. Most often, cabbage, fish and liver dishes remain untouched. However, these products must be included in the diet of schoolchildren; this is provided for by the relevant federal recommendations. To prevent children from refusing to eat them, schools hold educational events for children and their parents. Olga Kurygina, deputy of the city council and director of school No. 154, explained how this is usually organized.
“For us, the issue of children’s nutrition is very acute; we want the children to be happy with breakfast and lunch, so that the food is always tasty and hot,”
Olga Kurygina shared. — I think that this directly affects the image of the school, so I am personally responsible for how the canteen works and how clean it is. If parents have complaints, we make sure to address them. But the problem is that nutritional satisfaction is very difficult to measure. For example, children always eat macaroni and cheese, cottage cheese casseroles, and some types of soups. And there are dishes that students simply don’t like. But we are obliged to instill in them a taste for proper nutrition. We invite parents to the dining room, let them taste the dishes, and introduce them to proper nutrition. Unfortunately, not all adults prepare the same soups and cereals at home.”
A new Krasnoyarsk initiative is also helping to improve the work of catering departments – the introduction of people responsible for organizing catering in every school. For now, this is not a separate staffing position, but additional duties that can be performed by primary school teachers or social educators in a particular institution. They not only check the quality of the dishes and make sure that all children are well-fed, but also publish documents regarding the nutrition system on the websites of their organizations. Taking into account the importance and volume of this work, it is possible that schools will introduce separate rates for such specialists. At least, the deputies included the corresponding recommendation in the decision made following the meeting.
“The City Council constantly and very carefully monitors what is happening in the school nutrition system,” shared the chairman of the relevant commission
municipal parliament Oksana Larionova. — Children are our future, we must preserve their health for the well-being of the country. I would like to say that the situation has objectively improved recently. However, the topic remains very sensitive. Deputies know that the issue is multifaceted, it includes the condition of catering units, canteens, the quality and cost of products, and the qualifications of personnel. In addition, a huge number of people are involved in the process. There are 146 thousand schoolchildren in our city alone, plus parents. School meals will never be 100 percent perfect for everyone because everything about food is so subjective.”
The head of the commission noted that deputies not only take into account the information provided to them by the city administration and the Chamber of Control and Accounts, but also make their recommendations, which affect the efficiency of school food operators. Thus, the proposals of people’s representatives to attract students into the system have already been taken into account. And following the results of the next meeting, the commission recommended that the education department develop an action plan that should make school food more attractive to students, so to speak, increase the food consumption. In addition, people's representatives believe that the quality of food will improve if schools switch to self-cooking, this will make the process more flexible and manageable. The deputies also included a corresponding recommendation in the decision adopted following the meeting.
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