The Buenos Aires legislator of the Frente de Todos Ofelia Fernández presented this Monday a project to modify the system of school canteens in public establishments, by ensuring that the food received by students “intoxicates and is of poor quality”, and denounced “a business that condemns to hunger those who are able to eat their only meal of the day at school”.
The initiative is named after “Comprehensive law on the right to adequate food in educational institutions”is accompanied by legislator Matías Barroetaveña and seeks to “transform the operation of dining rooms and food in gardens, primary and secondary schools in CABA.”
“In the canteens of the primaries, many do not want to eat because the food is ugly and every year there are children who end up in the hospital for poisoning, while in high school they give, every day, popsicle and cheese sandwiches. Nor do they feign interest in good nutrition,” assured the legislator in a video published on her social networks.
There, he said that “there are kids who have the only meal of the day at school,” while pointing out that the Buenos Aires government “instead of guaranteeing them a delicious and healthy meal, they force them to eat in disgust or run the risk of ending up boarding schools”.
Present a project to transform the school feeding system.
Today in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, food is intoxicating and of poor quality. There is a business with canteens and food that starves those who are able to eat their only meal of the day at school pic.twitter.com/7vbTYYfNEm
– Ofelia Fernández (@OfeFernandez_) April 11, 2022
The legislator stated that the expense “of each kid’s breakfast, for some crackers and a chocolate berreta, is $37”, while affirming that the amount amounts to $710 “for each official of the Secretariat of Cultural Transformation, with toasted wholemeal bread, jam, cream cheese, squeezed juice, coffee and various types of tea.”
“I didn’t come here just to complain, I presented a project to reform the entire school feeding system”indicated and advanced that among the axes of his proposal are the universalization and free school food assistance and the prohibition that companies that were fined for poor service can provide food.
Also that fruits and vegetables are produced by agroecological cooperatives and that the purchase of food from SMEs be encouraged, as well as the creation of an interdisciplinary commission made up of nutritionists and actors from the educational community that control the menus and implementation.
“I think It shouldn’t be too much to ask that no kid gets food poisoning at school. Let’s defend the best childhood possible, the best schools and a sensitive state,” the legislator said.
For his part, Barroetaveña said that “the management of the City’s school canteens is dire and requires an urgent review.”
“There are more than 12,600 million pesos that year after year are allocated to a few concessionaires for the provision of an inefficient service, plagued by complaints of mismanagement and even cases of massive intoxication,” he added.
An enriching discussion
Within the framework of the Conjunctures cycle, in which women from politics and Argentine society debate major issues on the public agenda, such as security, food sovereignty and the rights of sex workers. Ofelia Fernández, the youngest legislator and activist in Latin America, and Natalia Zarachothe first cartonera deputy, will analyze food and economic policies at the Community Organization and Food Sovereignty meeting.
The appointment is this Tuesday, April 12, at 7:00 p.m., at the Fondo Bookstore (Costa Rica 4568, CABA). Capacity is limited.
