The State Duma decided to establish GOST for school lunches: select chips

The Committee on Education of the State Duma proposes to create a unified GOST for hot meals for schoolchildren. The deputies have already addressed this initiative to Mikhail Mishustin. Earlier, the State Duma made a proposal to provide hot meals to all schoolchildren in the Russian Federation. And not just primary school students who are required to have hot meals in schools by law since 2020.

Imperfections in the food system prompted the deputies to come out with a proposal to standardize school lunches. Yana Lantratova, one of the initiators of the GOST food project, says that when she travels around the country she often sees schoolchildren sitting hungry. “They are given low-quality and tasteless food, which they are forced to refuse,” the parliamentarian worries. But there are many children with selectivity in food: with gastro-diseases, intolerances, diabetes, allergies…

Mandatory hot meals for elementary school students were introduced by law in March 2020. And soon it almost became a victim of sanctions – some of the products and raw materials became so expensive that the sale of “hot meals” was almost disrupted. The regions emerged thanks to direct purchases without intermediaries and a “creative” approach. Local and seasonal products began to be delivered to schools: fruits and vegetables, berries, mushrooms, fish, seafood, and even bear meat and venison.

– All government purchases, including for schools, are carried out through tenders, says the head teacher of the Moscow school, Lidia Leonidova. – And not the best participant wins, but the cheapest one. Yes, and in our school, which until recently was a lyceum, not all parents and children are satisfied with the quality of food in the canteen. We try, we take the best – from what we can afford. For first-graders there are breakfasts and afternoon snacks. Water coolers are in every classroom and corridor. But many people take food from home and have a snack at breaks, this is not forbidden.

The other day, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova reported that by September 1, all 100% of Russian schools “will be covered with hot meals.” For these purposes, 67 billion rubles were allocated from the state budget. However, in reality, hot lunches for elementary school students are not in demand everywhere. Many people prefer to give their children lunch boxes with “dry rations” so that the child does not eat dubious white meatballs and boiled pasta.

– And older children, teenagers, will not go to the “canteen”, – Leonidova believes. – They rarely even go to a commercial cafe with pies and compotes, but more and more to shops at breaks. Going for chips and gummies or getting something from a vending machine is a ritual for them.

Experts believe that the introduction of GOST will not improve the situation with the quality of school meals, but will only aggravate it. Standardization will complicate the logistics of supplies, increase the cost of cooking and will not be able to flexibly account for inflation.

“Then it is no longer GOST, but SanPiNs that need to be introduced,” says economic lawyer Stanislav Popov. – GOSTs, after all, according to the law, we do not regulate anything, they are advisory in nature. And yes, I agree, inflation. The growth of prices for some types of basic products in just a year amounted to 18-25%. How will the supplier and executor of the order behave, who need to meet the budget, which is not indexed? Just save on everything…

In addition, a single standard will certainly kill the beginnings of import substitution in school canteens – now local products get there, really fresher and cheaper. And between school catering units in remote villages and megacities, it is also impossible to put an equal sign.

To feed everyone, they decided in another Duma faction, and introduced a bill on compulsory hot meals for all schoolchildren in the Russian Federation. To the question “at whose expense is the banquet?” deputies famously answer: from the state budget, regional and local budgets, the generosity of sponsors (“other sources of funding”). The price of the issue, according to parliamentarians, is 44 billion rubles a year (for some reason, junior schoolchildren in grades 1-4 ate 69 billion a year – author). The initiative slightly resembles the story of five loaves and two fish from the New Testament.

But, according to the deputies, this is the only way teenagers and young people will be able to improve their health. Down with unhealthy burgers, chips and soda – every student, regardless of parental income, should be provided with “free hot meals at least once a day.”

By the way, according to the law, meals for younger students are paid, although the price is indexed. Families with many children, orphans, families with proven low income and other preferential categories pay nothing at all for school lunches.