#school meals

[reasonsforhope]

"Indonesia’s new government started an ambitious project on Monday [January 6, 2025] to fight malnutrition by feeding nearly 90 million children and pregnant women that is expected to cost $28 billion through 2029, although critics question whether the program is affordable.

The Free Nutritious Meal program delivers on a campaign promise by President Prabowo Subianto, who was elected last year to lead the nation, which has more than 282 million people and Southeast Asia’s largest economy. He said the program aims to fight the stunting of growth that afflicts 21.5% of Indonesian children younger than 5 and would raise the income of farmers.

Subianto has pledged to accelerate GDP growth to 8% from 5% now.

In his inauguration speech in October, Subianto said many children are malnourished. His promise to provide free school lunches and milk to 83 million students at more than 400,000 schools is part of a longer-term strategy to develop the nation’s human resources to achieve a “Golden Indonesia” generation by 2045.

“Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line, too many of our children go to school without breakfast and do not have clothes for school,” Subianto said.

Subianto’s signature program could cost upward of 450 trillion rupiah ($28 billion) by the end of his term in 2029. He said his team has made the calculations to run such a program, and “We are capable.”

The government’s target is to reach an initial 19.5 million schoolchildren and pregnant women in 2025 with a budget of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.3 billion) so as to keep the annual deficit under a legislated ceiling of 3% of GDP, said Dadan Hindayana, the head of the newly formed National Nutrition Agency...

Nearly 2,000 cooperatives will be involved in the free meals program by providing eggs, vegetables, rice, fish, meat, milk and other food, Cooperative Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said.

On Monday, a truck carrying food arrived at SD Cilangkap 08, a primary school in the Jakarta satellite city of Depok. The 740 students were provided rice, stir-fried vegetables, tempeh, stir-fried chicken and oranges.

“We will send a team to each school to facilitate the meal distribution to students every day,” Hindayana said, adding that the program will provide one meal per day for each student from early childhood education to senior high school, covering a third of the daily caloric needs for children, with the government providing the meals at no cost to recipients...

According to the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey, the national stunting prevalence was 21.5%, down around 0.8% from the previous year. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimated that one in 12 Indonesian children younger than 5 suffers from low weight while one in five is shorter than normal. Both conditions are caused by malnourishment.

“That’s so bad and must be solved,” Suwarso said. “Child malnourishment has severe consequences, threatening the health and long-term development of infants and young children throughout this nation.”"

-via Time, January 6, 2025

[politijohn]

Source

Source

Source

A better world is possible

[probablyasocialecologist]

In 1968, Harold Wilson’s Labour government ended free milk in secondary schools and three years later, Margaret Thatcher, then Conservative Education Secretary, stopped free milk for primary school children, earning her the taunt “Thatcher Thatcher, milk snatcher!” In 1980, she also abolished the minimum nutritional standards for school meals and the statutory duty of local education authorities to provide a meals service. The standard of school meals fell so dramatically that a 1999 survey found that, despite food rationing, children in the 1940s and 1950s had a better diet than children growing up in the 1990s.

[...]

The current #FeedTheFuture campaign is calling on the government to expand free school meals to 900,000 children in England living in poverty who are not currently eligible. But Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, go further, calling for universal free school meals across England, arguing that just like desks, books and bathrooms, we should give free school food to every child. The British government could do well to look at countries already providing universal free school meals, including Brazil, India, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and a number of states across the USA, with Kenya and Benin making firm commitments. Indeed, London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, made the news by introducing free school meals to all children in London’s state-funded primary schools. Today, 418 million children receive free school meals worldwide.

[alpaca-dave]

I had a lunchable very infrequently growing up; not sure I’d want it all the time, even if it was extra-nutritious. Kinda thought we’d be moving away from this kind of food in schools in 2023.

[martydlogan]

Students eat the midday meal at a school in Lalitpur, Nepal on Friday 3 March. The Nepal Government provides 15 rupees per student per meal but at this school a China-based Foundation has topped that up by 57 rupees. Full story coming next week.

[batboyblog]

I just wanted to bring this back with some pictures of Democratic Governors signing bills to expand access to free meals at school

Tim Walz of Minnesota

Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania

Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan

one party wants to feed kids, one party wants to starve them, you pick which one you're on.

Link

Both Parties are not the same.

[cutetrilobite2]

“The government has announced plans to gradually introduce the mid-day meal program in all primary schools across the country within the next five years, aiming to increase student attendance and reduce dropout rates.

According to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education sources, in the first phase of the rollout, schools across 150 upazilas will be the first to benefit from this program, marking a significant step towards its nationwide implementation. ”

[creativemedianews]

Cancer fears prompt Gov. Gavin Newsom to restrict pupils' favorite cafeteria treats

Cancer fears prompt Gov. Gavin Newsom to restrict pupils' favorite cafeteria treats #ADHD #California #FDA

[politijohn]

Source

Rotten

[destielmemenews]

"School districts currently work with processing companies to offer cashless payment systems for families. But the companies can charge “processing fees” for each transaction. By law, students who are eligible for reduced price meals cannot be charged more than 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. With processing fees, however, families can end up paying 10 times that amount. Processing companies charge as much as $3.25 or 4% to 5% per transaction, according to a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

source 1

source 2

source 3

[fitzrovianews]

Camden approves final school catering contract before bringing meals service in-house

Camden Council has announced plans for a new £24 million contract for a school meals provider — in what it hopes is the final one before adopting its “long-term ambition” to bring the service in-house by 2030. The Town Hall’s target with the new contract is to “ensure the service is better tailored to the needs of our schools, children and young people, and diverse communities”, members were…

[artistigi]

School snacks and lunches for my little ones!

[resist-the-oligarchs]

The state of Broken Britain... we can't even feed our kids properly in schools.

Good that the head teacher has acted, but what's wrong with the people at every level of the operation, from quality control at the supplier, Chartwells, to the people who check the food before serving to the children?

Does nobody care any more?

And what will the Tory government do? Nothing. Probably because the company is a party donor or got the contract by being a crony of a Tory politician.

[watford-herts-london]

London Mayor Sadiq Khan Announces Free School Meals and TFL Fares Freeze after Online Question Time

We’ve taken action to ease financial pressure on Londoners by providing free school meals, freezing TfL fares and building record numbers of council homes. I’m extremely proud of what we’ve delivered and will continue to deliver: A better, fairer, and greener London for all. The mayor and London Assembly are required by law to hold two PQT events a year, with the public meetings – a place where…