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School nutrition plays a key role in shaping healthy habits in children and adolescents, providing them with the necessary nutrients for full growth and development.
Proper nutrition at school not only contributes to improving the physical condition of students, but also affects their concentration, academic performance, and general well-being. In today's world, where children are faced with various temptations of fast food and unhealthy food, organizing quality school nutrition becomes particularly relevant. This is not just a matter of providing children with food, but an important step towards creating a healthy future for the younger generation. The School Nutrition Combine is responsible for organizing nutrition in Minsk schools. BELTA correspondents found out what and how children are fed, using the example of School No. 2 in Minsk.
Fifth-grader Nikita Tomashkov and his classmates look forward to school lunch every day. It usually takes place after the 3rd or 4th lesson, by which time the active fifth-graders have managed to get quite hungry. "I like everything in our canteen. Today we have a chicken cutlet with pasta - it's very tasty, just like at home. I also like buckwheat with sausages. But my favorite, which I will never refuse, is pelmeni. Once they gave them to us with sour cream. Our whole class ate it up. They should give them more often," the boy said, and his friends confirmed, not yet knowing that pelmeni would be served tomorrow.
Their class teacher and math teacher, Tatyana Lisovskaya, accompanies the class to the canteen every day. The teacher assured that the pelmeni in the school are not only eaten completely, but there is also room for seconds. "Children eat well, for the most part. There are favorite dishes, there are less favorite ones, but no less healthy. Teachers make sure that students eat anyway. We explain somewhere, we persuade somewhere. In general, we teach them to treat food, bread, with care, for this we recall history, the blockade, we talk about hunger, which in the modern world, unfortunately, is not so rare," the teacher shared.
school №2's children's nutrition - Larisa Dubanevich, head of the canteen production. She is the one who receives the products from which breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks will subsequently be prepared at the school. "We work with a two-week menu, which is compiled by technologists at the Minsk School Nutrition Complex. For example, we have a chicken dish on our schedule. The Vitebsk Broiler Factory supplies us with the products. They bring us fillet and thigh. I inspect them to ensure they are not thawed. If everything is fine, I put my stamp and we accept the products. Then we prepare, for example, chicken cutlets, if they are on our menu. It's the same with meat products. Vegetables are supplied to us peeled and vacuum-packed, and can be stored for 10 days. The acceptance procedure is similar: we check the accompanying documents, the quality certificate, and ensure there is no leakage. The dairy products are supplied by the dairy plant," informed Larisa Dubanevich.
The head emphasized that the products always arrive in good quality. "They fully meet the requirements for children's nutrition. We don't even have cases where we have to reject products. The supplier strives for quality, as everyone understands that this is children's nutrition. Everyone has children, grandchildren, and everyone tries to ensure that the children eat well," she is confident.
Oksana Kokareva, director of Minsk Secondary School №2, noted that the canteen and buffet are the most popular and accessible places in the school. "This is taking into account that the use of mobile devices is currently restricted in schools. During breaks, we use all active means for leisure activities. We have created conditions for sports and interactive games. Another way to distract from both the learning process and the absence of mobile devices is, of course, visiting the school canteen and buffet. We constantly monitor the organization of nutrition until the end of the second shift, because students in the 6th and 7th grades eat during the second shift, as well as the extended day group in primary school. We have established high-quality cooperation between the School Nutrition Complex and the school here," said the head of the educational institution.
Lyudmila Krupskaya, Director of the Minsk School Catering Combine, manages an enterprise responsible for all processes related to feeding children in the capital's schools. "The school catering combine currently comprises 330 facilities. Our network is extensive, and we feed approximately 230,000 schoolchildren in the capital. The combine's specialists develop sample two-week menus. These menus are developed seasonally (for autumn, winter, and spring periods), taking into account calorie requirements, rational distribution of nutrients, and the frequency of inclusion of specific products. For instance, products such as meat, vegetables, and milk must be present in a child's diet daily, while fish and cheese should be included at least twice a week. When developing sample menus for the autumn period, preference is given to fresh fruits and vegetables, whereas in the winter period, we switch to pickled and preserved vegetables. The menus undergo mandatory evaluation at the Minsk City Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology to ensure compliance with sanitary and epidemiological standards. The sample two-week autumn menu includes 137 dishes, 60 of which are from the informational collection of technological cards for dishes and products developed by the Ministry of Education," informed Lyudmila Krupskaya.
The system is well-defined, but not without innovations. "This season, we have introduced three products that were not previously used in children's nutrition at all – daikon radish and celery. For daikon radish, we adopted a dish from the informational collection, while celery is included in one salad, which is a development by our combine's specialists. Additionally, based on the results of a survey conducted in May last year, we offered children a sea kale and vegetable rillettes. This is boiled, chopped sea kale with added vegetables – carrots, onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Sea kale and vegetable rillettes are particularly rich in iodine, vitamins, and minerals. This product was very well-received by the children, and this year we have included it in their meals and are already seeing positive feedback. The most important indicator for us is a child's clean plate after school lunch," emphasized the head of the enterprise.
Regarding the cost of school meals, the
In fact, parents can also monitor everything edible at school. "If they have questions, there is a school-wide parent committee for that. Legal representatives can organize into a group, come to the school, and observe the food preparation technology. To do this, certain conditions must be met - the school has shoe covers, disposable gowns, and gloves. Please, a group of representatives from the school-wide parent committee can observe how everything is organized, even during the food preparation process, they can be present in the kitchen when products are being loaded. They can even taste the dishes that we serve to children every day," the school principal emphasized.
Nadezhda Shcherbak, head of the school nutrition section of the Frunzensky district of the School Nutrition Combine, is confident that the quality of nutrition also depends on those who cook in schools. "In each educational institution, we have a defined staffing table. According to it, we select personnel, striving to ensure that a team of professionals works in each school - we select the best кадры. Because quality products are only half the battle. They need to be cooked well. We all understand that one housewife will cook mashed potatoes one way, and another will cook them differently using the same products. In my opinion, the most important thing to remember is that to cook for children, you need to love them and, of course, your profession," added Nadezhda Shcherbak.