Mykolaiv wants to change the school catering system to avoid dependence on one company

Anatolii Petrov, Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv, spoke about the organisation of catering in schools. Photo: NikVesti

Mykolaiv is planning to change the school catering system and divide the organisation between different companies, instead of leaving everything to one company.

This became known during a briefing on catering in Mykolaiv's educational institutions, according to NikVesti.

Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv Anatolii Petrov said that various options are being considered, but there is no decision yet.

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«We are talking about it now, thinking about it. We even talked to Hanna Volodymyrivna (head of the Mykolaiv Education Department, Hanna Lychko, — note) that we might consider it by districts. So there are such options, we will now think about how to implement them», said Anatolii Petrov.

He also reported that Mykolaiv schools lack experienced cooks and technologists, as some have already resigned due to hard work and low salaries.

Complaints about food in Mykolaiv schools

Earlier, parents of Mykolaiv schoolchildren expressed dissatisfaction with free meals on social media. According to them, the portions were smaller than normal, the meals were served cold, and the dishes in the school canteens were dirty.

Petro Vasheniak, director of the municipal production enterprise for catering in Mykolaiv educational institutions, said he had personally checked the situation, particularly at school 41, where parents complained about the amount of food on the plate. According to him, the portions were in line with the standards, but in the photo, part of the dish was hidden — for example, a chicken nugget was lying on top of potatoes.

Later, the State Food and Consumer Service of Mykolaiv stated that they had not received any complaints about poor quality food in the city's school canteens.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, responded to the parents' complaints by saying that a special commission would be set up in the city with representatives of the city council to monitor the situation.

Following the incident, the Main Department of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Mykolaiv Oblast checked the food served to children in 15 schools in the city. Experts analysed photo reports of the meals served to students.

It is known that in the new school year, all pupils from grades 1 to 11 will be provided with free meals in Mykolaiv schools. The funding for meals will be shared: up to 70% of the costs will be covered by the state, and the rest by the city budget.

It should be noted that at the last session, the deputies of Mykolaiv City Council reallocated the city budget, including 14 million hryvnias for meals for children in the city's schools.

As a reminder, it was planned to spend 146.2 million hryvnias on meals for children in Mykolaiv schools by the end of this year. Earlier it was reported that school meals would rise in price from 1 September.