Nearly 500 tonnes of food for school canteens rejected in Kazan

Nearly 500 tonnes of defective food

Food control inspectors carried out 170,000 food tests and found 492 tonnes of feedstock and products deficient last year. Director General of the Food and Social Catering Department of Kazan Rima Mukhamedshina said this.

“These products did not make it to the warehouses of the Food Department,” she stressed.

According to her, this year the department provided almost 169,000 Kazan schoolchildren, which is 9,000 more than last year. 79,500 kids from year one to year four, 18% of senior students, children of soldiers involved in the special military operations and children with disabilities had free meals.

In general the department provides services to over 300,000 people in Kazan and 10 Tatarstan districts. From 1 September, the number will increase by another 9,000. The department takes care of 314 schools of Kazan, five districts of the republic, six city hospitals, 684 kindergartens in the capital and 10 in the republic’s districts.

Investments in the food industry and staff totalled 153 million rubles. In 2024, it is planned to increase the funding to 263 million rubles, most of the sum will be sent to raise canteen workers’ salaries — 166 million rubles will be spent on this.

75 million rubles to additionally pay to canteen workers

A shortage of staff is the main problem in the catering industry. According to Mukhamedshina, 238 students from specialised educational institutions did internships in respected organisations this year.

“It already became a good tradition when the department cooperates with specialised institutions. 238 students did their internships in school canteens and the Food Department in the last year,” said Mukhamedshina.

96 students of the International Service College were accepted for internship in a job providing programme.

“This programme significantly reduces students’ studying and training period, and most classes take place on the site,” she concluded.

75 million rubles in general were allocated to additionally pay to canteen workers and support schools with hiring canteen staff.

Canteen modernisation is a great initiative

Head of the Kazan Executive Committee Rustem Gafarov claimed that the capital of Tatarstan is a leader in school canteen modernisation among Russian cities. He thanked the republic and the regional leader for supporting this initiative.

“Canteen modernisation is a great initiative, thanks the republic and the Tatarstan rais for this. No city has seen such transformations in this sphere,” Gafarov noted. “We are already near the finishing line no matter how unattainable the goal of modernising all canteens looked like.”

Today most Kazan schools already comply with modern standards. As the head of the Executive Committee noted, it is planned to renovate another 17 canteens this year. 331,2 million rubles were allocated for this. Only several facilities will have to be improved after that.