I. Metshin about school catering: “Children's health is and will be one of the main priorities of our work”

(KZN.RU, August 5, Alena Miroshnichenko). Making the organization of school meals as efficient as possible is not an easy but important task since it is related to the health of children and their future. “Even rich countries that allow themselves much in infrastructure have switched to chips and sandwiches long ago. Their community, parents, and healthcare agreed on it. We believe that we need a healthy generation and therefore we will develop school catering”, said Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, at a traditional staff meeting in the Kazan Executive Committee.

The Mayor said that a roadmap to improve school catering has been built. Some issues will be resolved by September 1, others during the school year, and a number of other tasks have been set for the next year or two. “We will spend 170 million rubles for an overhaul of the canteens. We did not plan these expenses at the beginning of the year, but the city is a living organism and, when questions appear we intend to solve them”, said Ilsur Metshin.

The Mayor thanked the parents, who drew the attention of the city authorities to the severity of the problem. “This is a normal algorithm for civil society when people raise a question, and the authorities react to it. Honestly, having organized school meals10 years ago, we were sure that it was one of the best in Russia. This was even noted by the President of the country when he came to us and assessed school canteens, a school food factory. But any mechanism requires tuning. So today we have started this. This is a large and complex process that requires organization, interagency interaction. But school catering, the health of our children, their well-being and safety were, are and will be one of the main priorities of our work”, marked the Mayor.

I. Metshin drew special attention to the education of schoolchildren in the field of healthy catering. He reminded that about 10 years ago, information about vitamins and healthy foods was placed for Kazan schoolchildren on distributing trays and paper napkins. “Chips, hot dogs and other treats come from the family, so we must take on an educational function. A healthy diet will seriously improve overall health. A whole generation has grown up and, if we reached out to someone of them, changed their lifestyle, then these are not empty words”, he said. The Mayor suggested launching an educational program on healthy eating on September 1.