The authorities decided to feed free lunches to all schoolchildren in grades 1-4

Two news related to the nutrition of children came at once from the government and the State Duma. Firstly, the authorities recalled that from September 1, 2023, schoolchildren from grades 1 to 4 will be provided with hot meals throughout the country – money has been allocated to the regions. Secondly, Vice Speaker of the State Duma Vladislav Davankov suggested explaining the dangers of fast food to children in schools.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin recalled that the President of our country set the task of providing students in grades 1-4 with free hot meals. Such measures were introduced in stages so that students had the opportunity to have lunch or breakfast at the educational institution. “From September 1 this year, Russian schools in every Russian region should receive federal funding for these purposes,” Mikhail Mishustin announced.

The authorities have calculated that in total about 7.7 million primary school students will be fed free lunches (or breakfasts, whatever) from the new academic year. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova informed that in 2020-2022, more than 139 billion rubles were allocated to co-finance the organization of hot meals in the regions, in 2023 another 67 billion rubles are provided. Separately, Tatyana Golikova mentioned that the government will allocate an additional 1.4 billion rubles for the organization of hot lunches in primary schools in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

This issue was previously resolved in each region in different ways. But in many cities of Russia, elementary school students already receive free meals. As for high school students, students from large and low-income families, children with disabilities, children of a disabled parent, etc. are mostly fed free of charge.

“MK” talked with mothers from different regions, and it turned out that almost everywhere, elementary school students have been provided with free meals since last year. “In our Irkutsk region, last year we already fed all the elementary school students. Plus once a week a carton of milk per child. “Tatarstan – elementary grades are free, and those who have four or more children from senior grades are also free.” “Chelyabinsk – elementary school eats for free. And they still give out milk.

But the point is also that the food in school canteens is of high quality and tasty.

– Now providing schoolchildren with free hot meals is solved differently in the regions; it all depends on the republican and city budgets, – Yuri Obolonsky, executive director of the National Parents’ Committee, commented to MK. – Somewhere, as far as I know, only children from low-income families can count on this. This is very important if the state finances hot meals for children, and everything will be the same in all regions. Now the most painful issue is the quality of food and compliance with sanitary and epidemiological standards by school canteens. In this area, in my opinion, there should be no subcontractors – when someone wins a tender, and then transfers it to another. We analyzed a lot of situations when poisonings occurred in different regions, and they happened just because of unscrupulous subcontractors, savings and violations of sanitary rules and SanPiN norms when preparing meals. And if the state is the customer, then it will take over the control over the quality of school meals.

I support this innovation with both hands. Most likely, we are talking about lunches, and rightly so: starting from September 1, the school day will stretch even more (extension, new subjects), the workload will increase both for teachers and schoolchildren, so hot meals are very important, especially for primary school children .

Meanwhile, experts in the field of economics remind that “now we have an election year,” and the authorities are trying to pay attention to such acute social issues and find funds to help families in various forms.

Where will the government get an additional 67 billion rubles. for school lunches in all regions?

– 67 billion rubles. – not so much money, it is 0.2 percent of the budget, Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the HSE Center for Market Research, commented to MK. – My opinion is that the Ministry of Finance will find that kind of money without even cutting federal budget items. As a last resort, they will cut funds for some infrastructure projects, narrow down some highway, but the children will be provided with food. We constitutionally position ourselves as a socially oriented state. So, first of all, we must take care of people, and above all about children. And everything related to children is in the first row. Moreover, we have been talking about free school meals for probably the last ten years. There has to be some way to sort this out.

…But the Vice Speaker of the State Duma, Vladislav Davankov, was seriously concerned about the craze of children for “harmful fast food” and proposed to fight this phenomenon at the school level. The essence of his initiative is to show children at school “visual experiments” of how badly this kind of food affects children’s organisms, since, according to him, “standard lectures” on this topic are uninteresting and ineffective for children. But the problem of overweight, according to the vice-speaker, is becoming more acute in children: if in the early 2000s there were 150 cases of obesity for every 100 thousand children, then in recent years this unpleasant figure has increased to 900!

Remember the famous old video where it was shown how the cola “eats” the egg shell? This experiment was then tried to repeat by many kids. There are also commercials where, with the help of a carbonated drink, rusty nails are easily cleaned or even clogged pipes are pierced. “What then happens to our stomachs?” the experimenters in the video exclaimed in horror.

The vice-speaker of the State Duma mentioned that such visual experiments can be included in biology, chemistry lessons or carried out after school hours.

What do teachers think about this idea?

– I’m not against such forms, but it is at specialized lessons, because in the “extracurricular” (lessons outside the school curriculum) there is something to do anyway! – Lidia Petrovna, a Moscow teacher of history and social studies, remarked to us. – Our children themselves made such reports about smoking, with presentations. It was interesting! When this sounds from the lips of children, classmates, then it reaches the children themselves much better. No one argues that visibility works better, but this is not a panacea either. It seems to me that parents themselves should stop eating this muck, this will be the best method of struggle, but this is unattainable!