I.Metshin on school nutrition: “Our results are known at the national level, but it is important for us to be the best, not the first”

The results of the Parental Control project, which was launched at the beginning of the year in order to improve the quality of school meals, were summed up in Kazan. At a meeting with parents and school principals in the Saidash cultural center, the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin emphasized that in general, the project was successful, but there is still room for improvement.

“We met in this hall a few months ago and today we will discuss the first results of the work. They show that our decision to introduce parental control at schools was correct”, – Ilsur Metshin addressed the parents. The head of the city said that he has been pursuing the issue of school nutrition since 2005.

“We do everything to ensure the best meals in our schools and parents help us in this - not only inspecting the work of canteens, but also improving the quality of food. Our results are known at the national level, but it is important for us to be the best, not the first,”- Ilsur Metshin noted.

Irek Rizvanov, head of the Department of Education, reported on the quantitative results of the parental control. According to the electronic database, more than 8 thousand parents and grandparents visited school canteens in three months.

“To avoid subjectivity, common criteria for evaluating meals and food organization were developed for parents. When visiting canteens, parents filled out a checklist containing several key parameters for evaluating the work of canteens – the menu in the hall, cleanliness, taste of food, temperature, etc.”, - said Irek Rizvanov.

Parental control helped to reduce the number of complaints: in January-April 2021, the number of complaints halved from 54 to 24 compared to the previous year.

A total of 8,063 parents left 145 comments. Of these, 92 were without clarification, reported Rima Mukhamedshina, Director of the Department of Food and Social Nutrition of Kazan. The following complaints were received– undercooked or overcooked pasta, flavorless sausages, chopped onions in meatballs, watered-down compote. Additional inspections were held at schools, and together with the cooks, the technology of cooking dishes was improved.

During the parental control, a survey was conducted among the school students. The students told about their favorite dishes – mashed potatoes, pasta, dumplings, pancakes, buckwheat porridge and chicken. Fish, fish cutlets and vegetables were the least popular.

During the discussion, the parents made a number of suggestions.

Such meetings with parents and school staff will be held regularly. “Your feedback is important to us, otherwise there will be no proper result, we will definitely continue this work and make the meals at schools in Kazan healthy, but at the same time delicious,” –  Ilsur Metshin concluded.