Department of food and social meals of Kazan produced 300 millions of school servings

(Kazan City KZN.RU, January 21). For 10 years the Department of food and social meals of Kazan has made 300 million hot meals for school students, 50 millions of it were provided to students free of charge. Company's director Guzel Ananieva told about the results of work of the department today at the IV session of Kazan City Duma.

According to her, problems of nutrition in school canteens that existed in Kazan before 2006 were typical for all regions and cities of Russia. The main problem was the location of the canteens in the old buildings, which could not meet the modern realities and established sanitary norms and standards. "At the initiative of the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin first in Russia Kazan has managed to overcome these challenges and successfully reformed the system of school nutrition. Our experience provided the impetus for the adoption a federal pilot project "Improvement of catering of students in educational institutions" in the framework of the priority national project "Education" in 2008, setting a high standard of service for all regions", - said G.Ananeva.

About 950 million rubles has been invested for the organization of healthy food in school infrastructure and the department since the start of the target program. These funds were gone to update kitchen equipment, renovate and equip 3 factories-billet plants for production of ready meals and convenience foods with its own accredited laboratory. In addition, a complex of warehouses with a two-week supply of food and fleet of 53 vehicles of specialized transport equipped with GPS-navigators were created.

With the established material base it was possible to improve the system of school nutrition significantly. Thus, it was decided to introduce a new for Russia, unique technology of preparation of school breakfasts and lunches «Cook & Chill», developed by a single menu, which excludes prohibited for children food products and offers a free choice of dishes. One of the first in Russia cashless payments at schools with a single student card was introduced. In the future it is planned to develop cashless payment system and refuse from cash in schools. Total number of students enrolled in nutrition supply increased from 37% in 2005 to 93% in 2015.

According G.Ananeva, today, regardless of the material prosperity of families, children can eat on equal terms in the canteens. "For 18% of students from poor families meals at school are free. 226 millions rubles were put in the budget of the city only in 2016 for this purpose. Of course, our main achievement is that digestive diseases among children moved to 3-4 places on the prevalence from the 1st place. In addition, the number of children with physical disabilities on the overall weight and growth capacity decreased in 1.5 times, "- she said.

A significant event was the creation of accredited research laboratory, which now provides full control on each work cycle. Only in 2015 laboratory checked 14.6 million tons of food, of which 554 tons were returned to suppliers because of the lack of quality. Also, a single centralized system of food procurement was created, which last year made possible to save more than 70 million rubles. All food products are purchased on the electronic trading platform.

As G.Ananeva described, at summer 2014 an innovative project "School reestetik" launched in Kazan. "The experiment was started in two schools, the results were so successful that sixteen educational institutions are now involved in this project. In 2015 in frames of the project 10 refitting of kitchens, dining rooms repair and replacement of furniture worth over 70 million rubles were carried out. The project takes into account all the wishes of students: a choice of dishes is given, quality of service in the dining room was improved, a comfortable «Chill out» zones were made, and areas with Wi-Fi were arranged. We tried to consider all that attracts today's youth in cafes and restaurants", - she said.

As a result of large-scale survey, conducted in 2014, the effectiveness of the reform confirmed.

Mayor Ilsur Metshin noted the success of the department at the end of the report. "The increase in the coverage of hot meals from 37% to 93% - these figures speak for themselves. Our main achievement is that we were able to provide meals for all schoolchildren. We feed all students of the Kazan schools well, and it is more than 100 thousand children. But we should not to remain at one place, and I'm glad that proposals for further development sounded", - said the Mayor and requested the Executive Committee to develop a municipal program to improve the organization of healthy food in schools.