What do students eat in schools in the Vitebsk region?
Food Culture is at its Best
At Secondary School No. 12 in Vitebsk, 97% of the 1313 students eat in the school canteen. This is one of the highest rates in the regional center. During each break, about 200 children are at the dining tables. It might seem like a chaotic crowd of schoolchildren gradually filling the canteen at first glance, but it's manageable. Within a minute, everyone is in their place, hot meals are on the tables, and class teachers and duty teachers are nearby, ready to resolve any situation. Senior students set the tables. The canteen buzzes like a beehive due to the number of people, but it operates efficiently – it's evident that the food culture at the school is at its best.
When we arrived, the first break had just begun – first-graders were eating. The children are small, but they ate with appetite. And why not! For breakfast, they had sausages with rice porridge and a bun, a favorite for many. Older children, who came after the first-graders, say they love school food: it's always warm and tasty, and the dishes vary.
– You can't fool children, – is convinced by Svetlana Tretyakova, the principal of Secondary School No. 12. – If the food in the school canteen is not tasty, and the conditions are uncomfortable, you won't be able to make children eat.
We have completely updated the equipment in the food preparation area, installed a combi oven that allows for menu diversification and maximizes the preservation of nutrients in food products, and we have highly skilled chefs working here. They develop some dishes themselves, experimenting with salads and pastries. Every day, the school canteen features a special dish of the day. From time to time, we invite parents for tastings. They like it very much too.
Indeed, the selection in the school canteen and especially in the buffet is quite extensive. Children are served not only original salads and dishes of Belarusian cuisine but also pink salmon and shashlik.
The buffet offers a wide variety of homemade baked goods – pies and pancakes with various fillings, and desserts.
There has never been a difference in dishes between paying students and those receiving free meals at Secondary School No. 12: the children have always sat at the same tables and eaten the same meals. Let us recall that at the beginning of September, during a visit to one of the capital's schools, the President of the Republic of Belarus drew attention to this. The fact is that until recently, the cost of hot meals, paid for by parents, slightly differed from the amount allocated from the budget for beneficiaries. As a result, in some Minsk schools, a situation arose where the dishes offered to beneficiaries differed from those served to other students. The President demanded that all children in schools be fed equally.
At Secondary School No. No. 12, it was reported that today all categories of schoolchildren are offered a choice of two menu complexes from two-week meal plans with the same cost. The portion sizes are the same for everyone.
Unified Menu
– In the Vitebsk region, when organizing meals, we have never divided children into beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, – notes Natalya Mazenkova, chief specialist of the main education department of the regional executive committee, who oversees catering in the region's educational institutions. – There is a unified meal plan, which is periodically updated, undergoes sanitary and hygienic expertise, and is calculated for nutritional and energy value. Based on this, daily meal plans are compiled, which are uniform for each age group.
Every day, all students have a choice of two menu complexes within the approved monetary norms. Currently, depending on age, the cost of school lunches for high school students ranges from 1.79 to 1.90 rubles.
It is worth noting that thanks to this approach, students eligible for benefits also have a wider choice of dishes. Now, like everyone else, they can order one of two meal sets daily using the ERIP system.
– Parents might want more choices, but buffets and school cafes are available for that, – says Natalya Nikolaevna. – In Novopolotsk Gymnasium No. 1, there is even a school bar that prepares smoothies and cocktails. By the way, the recipes for student meals have been adjusted recently. This year, for example, the amount of salt and sugar in dishes has been reduced, and the amount of baked goods in buffets has also been reduced. Sausage rolls and "smazhni" now appear no more than twice a week. Priority is given to dishes made from fruits and vegetables. For children suffering from chronic diseases, dietary nutrition is organized in a number of educational institutions.
Focus on Renovation
The coverage of hot meals for schoolchildren in the Vitebsk region is currently 98%. In rural areas, all students in grades 1-11 have free breakfasts, while in cities, grades 1-4 do. Out of 56,000 beneficiaries in the region, 7% of children receive two or three meals a day. These are primarily children with disabilities, and children from large and low-income families.
– By the beginning of the academic year, 1.35 million rubles were spent on strengthening the material and technical base of the food blocks, and 940 units of technological and refrigeration equipment were purchased, – reports Natalya Mazenkova.
– Many school food blocks are equipped no worse than restaurants. Now their renovation is reaching a new level – the latest energy-saving and energy-efficient equipment is being supplied, which allows for cooking food with minimal loss of organic and mineral substances.
For example, combi ovens, induction cookers, pureeing and vegetable cutting machines, etc. And for aesthetic cutting of gastronomy – slicers.