The mobile application “Eat and happy” is developed for schoolchildren in Kazan

(KZN.RU, April 17, Alsu Safina). The free mobile application “Eat and happy” was developed for schoolchildren on the initiative of the Department of Food and Social Supply of Kazan. Students of four Kazan schools can already assess the catering in their canteens using a new mobile application. It is planned to cover the remaining schoolchildren before the end of the school year. Complaints about a cold lunch and a request to organize halal food are among the first reviews.

“A good beginning. Children are our main consumers of nutrition services. The coverage of children is large: there are almost two hundred schools in the city. It is very important for both parents and schools that there will always be feedback”, Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, supported the launch of a new application today at the Business Monday in the Executive Committee.

According to Guzel Ananieva, the director of the department, the mobile application was officially launched on March 1 in two schools in Kazan №146 and 179. Last week two more schools №143 and 156 joined them. Employees of the department conducted a demonstration of the application for students of 5-11 grades and their parents in each of these schools. “Our goal is to hear every child, get an accelerated, objective feedback on the quality of our work from each school”, said the director of the department.

The mobile application is publicly available on the Google Play and App store platforms, and every student can download it for free. In order to start using the application, you must enter your phone number and password of the educational card. The application has several sections. First of all, this is a questionnaire. Each school is marked on an interactive map of the city. The rating of schools is built according to the results of the questionnaire. “This will allow paying attention to those schools, in which there is a problem, and the school's leadership will have an additional incentive to improve the nutrition indicators of schoolchildren”, said Guzel Ananieva.

Also, the menu for the current week is placed in the application. It is envisaged that schoolchildren will evaluate dishes of the canteen, make a rating, and the department will present new items and include them in the school menu by voting results. “Several reports about the quality of cooking one of the dishes came from one school. This served as a signal and the specialists of the production department immediately went to the site with an inspection”, the speaker gave an example.

In addition, the application includes a daily questionnaire in the format “School Auditor” with the ability to attach photos and reviews. The information received is analyzed by a specialist, brought to the production branch of the department and the school management. The answer is formed for each review, and a child receives feedback on his request. The mobile application allows controlling not only the quality of dishes but also the sanitary condition of the kitchens: users can send data on the current state of school canteens and utensils.

The head of the department announced the first results of the application. According to her, the main complaint of students to the work of school canteens is cold lunches, which is due to the fact that lunches are served in advance because the breaks are short in time. In addition, students noted the lack of time for adequate nutrition and the existence of large queues. The head of the department also proposed to take into account the need to increase the area for the seats in the canteens during major repairs in schools. “This once again confirms the need for long breaks and the development of a meal schedule, taking into account the number of seats in the dining hall”, G. Ananieva believes. Ilsur Metshin, in turn, noted that it is necessary to approach carefully the issue of changing the duration of the breaks since the existing system was worked out over the years.

As it turned out, the students address the department with requests. Several applications came from the school №179 with a request for halal food. Complex halal meals will be offered to students of this school from April 19.

G. Ananieva said that the holding of the campaign is planned with the help of the application, according to the results of which children will receive bonuses and special prizes. For timely replenishment of the educational card in the mobile application, there is information about the state of its account. It is supposed that it will be possible to conduct creative online contests and quizzes, announce them to a wide audience or specific classes using a mobile application. In addition, students can evaluate the work of their cooks according to the criteria. The department will encourage the best chefs.

According to the Mayor of Kazan, the quality control of the food will spur both the heads of the canteens and the department itself. “Usually such initiatives go from below, from parents. It's good that you put yourself in control of public opinion”, said Ilsur Metshin. “We support you, continue your work”.