Weighing the school lunch portions

The food supplier delivering school meals must weigh and verify the food to ensure the quantity is correct.

At Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, every lunchtime, the caregiver for each class holds a printed sheet detailing the meal portions for that day's school lunch. She then weighs the food and verifies it with the school lunch provider; only when the quantity is sufficient does she accept the delivery.

At this primary school, the daily meal fee for boarding students is 35,000 VND per student (including lunch and afternoon snack), in accordance with Resolution 04 of 2023 by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council. In the context of rising food prices, to ensure that the boarding school meal fee complies with city regulations while also guaranteeing that students receive a satisfying, hot meal for the same amount of money, the school and the meal provider must carefully consider all factors. Furthermore, the meal provider actively supports the school due to their long-standing relationship with the school.

The food items and eating utensils that have been steamed or dried... are all packed in boxes of different colors (green, red, yellow, blue) for easy distribution to the classes.

Each class's nanny will have a printed sheet containing the meal information for that day's school lunch ready to weigh and compare with the meal provider.

Ms. Tran Thi Thu Huong, Principal of Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School, District 1, said that to ensure meals are sufficient in quantity and quality, and that students eat well, feel full, and get enough nutrients, the school has had to work very closely with the meal supplier from the beginning. The supplier must adhere to the quantitative guidelines for each age group so that when food is delivered to the school, the school can check the quality and quantity of the dishes.

The school requires the meal provider not to pre-divide the food into individual trays for each student.

The meal provider must deliver the meals to each class in sufficient quantities of rice, soup, and main dishes (weighed to ensure the correct amount). Then, students will line up to help themselves to the rice and soup, while the caregiver will distribute the main dishes. This ensures that students eat enough, are full, and that their meals are served hot.

The teacher in charge of the school's lunch program always closely monitors the process of checking the delivered food, in terms of both quantity and quality.

Childcare staff only accept school lunches when the quantity and quality are correct and sufficient.

Thanks to nutritional software that calculates and balances the amount of food for each class, based on the students' age, nutritional needs, and the number of students eating lunch in the class, the lunch boxes will have different weights and quantities.

Each caregiver will have a printed sheet detailing the meal portions for their class that day to verify with the food supplier. They will only accept the food if the quantity is correct. The food supplier is not allowed to deliver as much as they please.

For example, today's lunch consists of stir-fried vegetables, white rice, dumplings, soup, and bananas. Class 3/1 has 33 lunch portions. The standard amount should be 5.6 kg of white rice; 8.3 kg of soup; 1.7 kg of savory dish (dumplings, weighed separately, not including the broth); and 0.8 kg of stir-fried vegetables. The caregiver checks the weight and quantity, comments on the color of the food, and ensures food hygiene and utensils are in good order before signing the quantity sheet.

On days when the school serves noodle dishes like pho, noodles, or hu tieu, the food delivery vehicle must take the broth to the school's nutrition education room to reheat it before distributing it to each class to ensure the meal is always delicious.

Lunch includes steamed dumplings with egg and vegetables, stir-fried bok choy, taro stew with shrimp, and banana for dessert.

Each dish is accompanied by a quantity chart, which the class caregivers use to weigh the food and check if there is enough.

Students line up to get their own food, ensuring they eat enough and are full.

"I often go around the classrooms to see how the students are eating today, whether they've finished their meals, and what their opinions are on the food. Here, most students eat very well; they rarely leave food uneaten. If there is leftover food, it's probably because the meal provider gives them more than usual," said Ms. Tran Thi Thu Huong, Principal of Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School, District 1.

At this school, there are two people who always eat the school lunch like the students. One is the school nurse , who must eat 30 minutes before the students to check if the meal meets food safety and hygiene standards, and to assess its color and smell. The other is the principal, who eats after the students have finished to evaluate the quality of the meal and determine if adjustments are needed to increase or decrease the quantity.

"The school lunch menu is always publicly available on the school's website. Every year, in addition to the regular inspections of the meal provider by the school's management board and the parent-teacher association, we also conduct surprise inspections of the provider to see if they comply with food safety and hygiene standards and what the origin of the food is," Ms. Huong said.

Ms. Huong (wearing a yellow ao dai) visits the classrooms to see how the students are eating their lunch at school.

Thanks to this scientific approach, students always receive sufficient and nutritious meals at school, and the meals are always hot.

The school has a cafeteria and weighs the food delivered to each class.

It's not just schools that order meals from external catering providers that need to weigh and verify the food delivered to the school.

During field trips to numerous school kitchens in Ho Chi Minh City, reporters from Thanh Nien Newspaper observed that after the school kitchens finish cooking the dishes, they proceed to distribute the rice and food to the classrooms. Kitchen staff also use a spreadsheet to calculate the amount of food needed for each class, corresponding to the number of students eating lunch at that class, in order to accurately weigh the rice and food.

The food was also weighed and divided among the classes after the chefs at Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School, District 1, finished cooking.

Students at Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School, District 1, during their school lunch break.

At Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, after the kitchen staff weighs out the correct quantities of rice, soup, and savory dishes for each class, the caregivers move the school lunch portions to the dining tables of their respective classes.

Principals of many primary schools in Ho Chi Minh City said that for many years, many schools in the city have implemented school meal projects, applying nutrition software in menu planning, calculating portion sizes, food quantities, and unit prices for school lunches... Thanks to this, the organization of school lunches has become more convenient and scientific...

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/can-ky-suat-an-ban-tru-185231021153300619.htm