Yen Nghia Secondary School will organize boarding meals again next week.

On the morning of October 19, classes at Yen Nghia Secondary School (Ha Dong District, Hanoi) received a notice from the school with the following content: "On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the school will temporarily suspend boarding activities to rearrange human resources and facilities. On Monday (October 23), the school will continue to organize boarding activities as usual. The school looks forward to receiving cooperation from parents."

School announcement sent to parents in class groups (Photo: PHCC).

Regarding the information about stopping boarding, on the morning of October 19, speaking to the press, Ms. Pham Thi Le Hang - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Ha Dong District, Hanoi said: "Yen Nghia Secondary School will temporarily stop organizing boarding for a few days to prepare the best human resources and facilities, meeting the wishes of parents. Next Monday (October 23), the school will continue to organize boarding again to create learning conditions for students and also help parents feel secure to go to work".

After receiving the school's announcement about the sudden suspension of lunch from October 19, many parents said they were confused because they did not know how to arrange to pick up their children at noon and take them to school in the afternoon.

A parent shared: "I work more than 10km from home. My house is more than 2km from school. Every morning, I take my 6th grader to school, then go to work, and come back late in the afternoon. When I heard that the school does not organize lunch, I am worried because I cannot arrange to pick up my child at noon, cook, and then take my child to school in the afternoon."

A parent of a 7th grade student at Yen Nghia Secondary School said that normally her child walks nearly 1 km to school in the morning. If the school does not organize a boarding meal, after school in the morning, the child walks home for lunch and then walks to class in the afternoon, which is very inconvenient. Parents work all day and cannot arrange to come home at noon. If the school stops the boarding meal, it will be really hard for parents and students. "When we heard that the school will organize boarding meals again early next week, parents whose children eat boarding meals like us are very excited and hope that in the future, the quantity and quality of the school meals for our children will be guaranteed."

Previously, parents of Yen Nghia Secondary School reported that a lunch meal cost 32,000 VND, including only 1 small piece of ham, a little potato and 3-4 pieces of fried fish, with a few bean sprouts. Another day, the menu was still just a little potato, 3-4 small pieces of fried fish and replaced the ham with a small piece of meat. Parents said that the quality of the meal was too little, not ensuring nutrition for students who are growing up and not ensuring health for studying.

Meal quantity was increased after parents' feedback (Photo: PHCC).

On the afternoon of October 17, the Board of Directors of Yen Nghia Secondary School held a meeting with parents and Hoa Sua Catering Company regarding the case of parents complaining about a few small pieces of food that has caused public outrage in the past few days.

At the end of the meeting, Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Trinh - Principal of Yen Nghia Secondary School concluded: "For the kitchen, the catering company will research, increase the level of quantity, food details, quantity, import price and calorie quantity in each dish, then send it publicly to parents. We also found that the weekly menu is not diverse, so we suggest that the kitchen adjust it for students. Tomorrow, the school will install additional cameras in necessary locations in the kitchen to monitor the kitchen as well as monitor people coming in and out.

As for Hoa Sua Catering Company, this unit will continue to cook for students but will be "challenged" until the end of October. If during this time the implementation is good, the contract will continue to be signed. If not, it will stop immediately and find another partner.

Regarding parents, we have received feedback that the school does not allow inspection of the kitchen, which is incorrect. We encourage parents to inspect from the stage of food import, processing, and meal distribution. However, we also hope to unify the process that parents who come to the school for a surprise inspection should call me and then check the kitchen with the school. Avoid the case of strangers who are not parents entering the school and the kitchen does not know who they are. Only then can the students' meals be guaranteed to be safe. Finally, the school would like to take responsibility for the recent incident. When students come to school, whether it is to study, play, or eat lunch, the principal must take responsibility."

It is known that in the 2023-2024 school year, Yen Nghia Secondary School organizes 2 sessions: Grades 8 and 9 study in the morning; Grades 6 and 7 study in the afternoon. The whole school has 2,000 students, the number of students registered for boarding meals accounts for 1/4, equivalent to 500 students; of which the number of students in grades 8 and 9 studying in boarding is 80 students; the number of students in grades 6 and 7 studying in boarding is 420 students.

(Source: Health and Life Newspaper)

Source