Ilsur Metshin about the school catering: “We will not accept even a single violation!”

(KZN.RU, April 19). “We have come a long way. We have done a lot for the children to eat good and healthy food in schools. But as happens on any road, some bolts unwind along the way, and now they need to tighten them”, said Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, at the meeting on school catering yesterday. He ordered to form a group of employees of the Executive Committee and the deputies. During the month, they will eat in school canteens to personally analyze the quality of food in educational institutions and identify flaws.

Marina Patyashina, the head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare in the RT, Lyudmila Andreeva, the deputy head of the Kazan Municipality, Denis Kalinkin, the head of the Executive Committee. Rustem Gafarov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee, heads of departments of the Executive Committee, districts, heads of RASO and school principals attended the meeting.

In 2006, the municipal program “Healthy Catering for Children” was developed in Kazan. A single school catering operator was created – the Department of Social Catering and Food.  It provides schools with a full-fledged menu at one price. Thanks to these measures, over 80% of Kazan schoolchildren began to receive hot meals (previously it was 37%). All these years, 23 thousand schoolchildren, or 18% of the total number of students belonging to the privileged categories, have been receiving hot meals free at the expense of targeted financing from the Kazan budget.

But it is not enough just to start any process, it is necessary to constantly improve and control it. “We have come a long way; we have done a lot for the children to eat quality and healthy food in schools. But as happens on any road, some bolts unwind along the way. And now they need to tighten them, to understand where we are today, to take new management decisions, perhaps, to apply new technologies. Still, we started this work almost 10 years ago, this is a long time”, said I. Metshin.

All flaws will need to be analyzed. During the upcoming summer holidays, we have take measures so that by September 1 the flaws will be eliminated.

The Department of Food and Social Catering of Kazan, which provides students with hot meals, is working with major republican producers, said Rimma Mukhameshina, the head of the Department. At the end of 2018, the share of local suppliers in the total purchases for baby food is 80%, which allows containing the cost of food, but at the same time maintain an expanded line of purchased goods. However, any raw materials and food are subject to strict laboratory control. “Last year, we rejected 664 tons of food that could be put on school plates”, she said. “Now we check products from each new supplier in independent laboratories at the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology. From the beginning of 2019, 149 batches of raw meat and poultry were tested, of which 27 batches were rejected and returned”.

In the structure of the institution, there are also catering departments that travel to all schools with checks at least once a month. During the year, 11 department employees conducted 840 checks, discovered and eliminated various violations. “In case of violations, we correct them and instruct. We deprive violators of the award, conduct explanatory work, even fired one of the cooks”, said R. Mukhameshina. She added that the department’s security service also comes to schools once every 1.5-2 months.

According to R. Mukhameshina, the big problem in providing quality food is the lack of personnel. This question remains relevant despite the fact that the situation has improved since the beginning of the year. On September 1, 2018, cooks and kitchen workers had 60% and 52% staffing, and by April 1, the staffing level was already 93% and 87%, respectively. “Young people are very reluctant in becoming cooks, it is important to raise the prestige of this profession”, said the head of the Department.

Meat semi-finished products, made flour, pastries and peeled vegetables are supplied to schools in order to facilitate the work of school cooks. They save time for cooking a large amount of dishes, said the speaker.

Marina Patyashina noticed that it was appropriate to use semi-finished products only in those schools where there are no conditions for cooking. “Still, we must understand that healthy eating is freshly prepared food. They can be used only where there are no conditions for preparing right meals”, she said.

A special role in providing high-quality catering to schoolchildren is assigned to feedback from students and their parents. There is a mobile application, where from the day of its formation about 3 thousand reviews have already been posted. In addition, a journal of parental control appeared in every school canteen on April 1. “We urge parents to come to schools, try, watch, and write to the journal. All this encourages staff to work better”, said R. Mukhameshina.

This year, the department received 43 comments: through a mobile application, social networks and through appeals from school principals. The largest number of complaints are about cold food, said the speaker director in conclusion.

“Cooling of the meals is connected with the preliminary table setting. This is an organizational aspect, which can be regulated by the school level, you just need to set the tables in a timely manner”, said Ilnar Khidiyatov, the head of the Department of Education. The criteria for rating schools are indicators of coverage of hot meals and the presence of complaints about the activities of school administrations, he added.

The meal schedule is approved based on the timetable and the number of seats in the canteens. But in schools with a full two-shift regime, it is difficult to provide all children with hot meals, given the time of breaks. For example, in 12 schools of the city, there are more than 9 students per seat with one meal, said the head of the Department of Education and urged his colleagues to pay attention to this problem.

I. Khidiyatov also said that initially many school leaders were completely distanced themselves from the issues of school feeding, shifting this responsibility to the food department. After the Department of Education and the Department of Food and Social catering noticed the problem, the situation changed. “The principals cannot talk about school meals “this is not my division”. This is wrong”, said I. Khidiyatov.

“This is not wrong, this is unacceptable!” answered the Mayor of Kazan. “How can the school principal say: now I am not responsible for this? This is our children! When we started school catering work 10 years ago, we said: our children can study differently, dress differently, but we need them to eat equally good and tasty food at least at school. And if school principals do not share this task with us, then we will take measures”.

The organization of food in school canteens should be one of the fundamental factors in evaluating the work of directors along with student performance, he added.

The Mayor drew the attention of his deputies and heads of districts that insufficient attention was paid to the issue of school catering. He demanded that more work be done in this direction. “There are objective reasons: it is not an easy task to feed you with two meals a day on 94 rubles, given the rise in prices. But it is feasible. It is time to talk about all the problems and solve them. We will not tolerate even a single violation!” he said. The Mayor urged parental committees of Kazan schools to engage in the work, and also instructed to form a group of responsible staff of the Executive Committee and deputies of the City Duma to analyze school meals.

“We will act quite simply: we will sign out all 162 schools among ourselves. And all of May, from Monday to Saturday, we will have lunch in school canteens. Everyone will come without warning with 69 rubles in his pocket, and have lunch”, said I. Metshin. “We have to find out where there are problems, where there are not enough rooms, seats, where there are any violations”.

During the summer holidays, we need to make changes. Lunches in schools should be hot, you need to set the tables as quickly as possible before students enter the canteens, added the Mayor. “Not all meals seem tasty for schoolchildren, because healthy food are not pizza or sausage roll. But hot and well-prepared dishes should be on the tables of schoolchildren. Children's health is the most important thing, and if someone disagrees with us, then we are not on the same road with them”.