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MINSK, 23 October (BelTA) - There is no need to make any fundamental changes to the organization of school meals, Belarusian Education Minister Andrei Ivanets told journalists following a meeting of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko with the leadership of the Council of Ministers, BelTA has learned.
Earlier, regulatory authorities informed the head of state about certain shortcomings in the school meals system, including complaints about food quality and the performance of canteen and school meal plants. For this reason, the president tasked responsible officials with strengthening control in this area.
According to the minister, serious work has been carried out in recent years to improve approaches to organizing school meals. In particular, the list of permitted dishes, the so-called recipe cards, has been expanded; food preparation areas and canteens have been modernized; and measures have been taken to recruit qualified staff, with around 1,500 cooks receiving advanced training last year. “Schoolchildren can now be served dishes that were once unthinkable for school canteens,” the minister noted. Almost one in three schools has received a modernized food preparation facility over the past two years.
When asked whether any major changes in the organization of school meals, Andrei Ivanets replied these should not be expected in the near future.
He pointed out that meals are provided to over a million schoolchildren, with about 750,000 of them receiving meals funded by the budget. Naturally, it is impossible to please each and every one. Even within a single family, children can have different food preferences, let alone in large groups. Therefore, a certain amount of food waste in school canteens is acceptable, but overall, it should be reduced by improving the quality and variety of dishes. The minister noted that this is an area that still requires work.
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