The school has responded to images of children's lunch meals resembling "diet meals."

On the morning of October 11th, in an exchange with a reporter from Dan Tri newspaper , a representative of the leadership of Albert Einstein Primary, Secondary, and High School (Ha Tinh city, Ha Tinh province) confirmed that the controversial images of lunch meals for primary school children, which were posted and shared on some Facebook accounts and compared to "diet meals," did indeed occur at this educational institution.

A parent whose child attends Albert Einstein Elementary School posted a picture of their child's school lunch. The image shows a lunch consisting of white rice, two pieces of tofu stuffed with meat, soup, two pieces of boiled corn, and a banana.

A photo of a primary school child's meal at Albert Einstein School, taken by a parent and posted online (Photo: Facebook).

However, the school representative stated that each child's three meals a day cost 48,000 VND. On the day of the incident, October 9th, the children had chicken pho and sticky rice with pineapple and braised pork in the morning; milk and cakes in the afternoon; and lunch consisted of the dishes shown in the picture.

The meals change daily; for example, on the day after October 10th, children have noodle soup with meat and grilled pork patties for breakfast; lunch includes chicken stew, steamed vegetables with peanut salt dip, chicken and pumpkin soup, sticky rice, and pomelo; and in the afternoon, fresh milk.

The school has a system for measuring the quantity and quality of food served to the children. However, during lunch on October 9th, a survey of the children and their parents revealed that the children did not like eating meatballs and tofu in sauce separately, so the school combined them into a single dish of stuffed tofu.

The menu for elementary school students at Albert Einstein School from October 7-11 has been made public to parents (Photo: Provided by the school).

"Regarding food supplies and menus, the school makes everything public to each class's parent group, and parents can wear ID badges to monitor the kitchen," a school representative said.

According to the school's leadership, on the morning of October 9th, a male parent whose child was in 4th grade wore a school ID badge and went to the kitchen area. At that time, the kitchen staff were preparing a meal, and the parent said he was "in a hurry" and asked them to scoop the meal onto a tray.

The kitchen staff followed the instructions and hadn't even had time to wipe the tray clean when the male parent used his phone, which had a poor-quality camera, to take a picture.

On the same day, the parent's wife posted a picture of the "unappetizing" meal on social media, sparking a lot of mixed reactions.

Following the incident, the school worked with the accounting team, food supervisor, and chef to verify the information. From this, the school determined that the meal portions were accurate, but the menu had been implemented according to what had been publicly disclosed to parents beforehand.

"The school affirms that there was no wrongdoing in embezzling funds from meal allowances or any shortcomings in food safety and hygiene," a school representative explained.

In addition, the school acknowledges that the incident was unfortunate and has been working with relevant departments. The school has also provided all relevant information that parents are concerned about and has decided to change the portion sizes of meals starting from October 14th.

Another meal at Albert Einstein School (Photo: Provided by the school).

Later, the school will send the menu a month in advance for parents to choose and agree upon. If parents feel unsure, the school will choose a third-party food supplier.

"Most other parents consider this just an incident and believe the school did nothing wrong. Those parents and organizations who commented on the images of the meals for comparison do not have children attending the school. However, we acknowledge their contributions because this comparison is helpful for the school to learn from," a school representative shared.

Following this incident, the Ha Tinh Provincial Police and food safety inspection units launched an investigation, and the school cooperated. Meanwhile, the parents who posted the complaint have deleted the images and posts from their personal accounts.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nha-truong-len-tieng-ve-hinh-anh-bua-com-trua-cho-tre-nhu-suat-an-kieng-20241011135641319.htm