At the beginning of the academic year, there were approximately 1.5 million students benefiting from free meals. The number of students was later increased to 1.8 million. As of tomorrow, it is planned to reach 5 million students with the application.
A Food/Nutrition Preparation and Distribution Guide was sent to the governorships for the implementation, which will be started with a focus on pre-school education and will gradually cover primary and secondary education.
All children attending pre-school education in public institutions will be given a daily meal five days a week.
Students who attend primary schools with a combined classroom with a kindergarten will also benefit from daily nutrition service. All day students who receive education in regional boarding secondary schools and do not benefit from boarding services will also be provided with one meal a day, free of charge, nutritional support.
The necessary budget was allocated to the relevant schools for the kitchen needs of the kindergartens that will prepare meals in the school kitchen and the schools and institutions that have a kindergarten class.
It will be ensured that the food service for schools that cannot prepare meals in their own kitchens will be procured only from vocational high schools and teachers’ houses affiliated to the Ministry of National Education, and from other public institutions that prepare meals.
“Tomorrow there is chickpea with meat and rice pilaf on the menu”
In this context, final preparations have been completed at Mehmet Meto Kindergarten in Ankara’s Çankaya district. While the kindergarten staff disinfected the children’s dining tables, the kitchen staff prepared the meal menu for tomorrow.
Mehmet Meto Kindergarten Manager Fatma Balıkçı stated that they ordered the ingredients to be used in the one-week meal menu and said, “Tomorrow, there is chickpea with meat and rice pilaf on the menu. We soaked the chickpeas, we completed our preliminary preparations.” said.
Balıkçı said that the parents were asked about the health status of their children during registration and accordingly, the foods that the child is allergic to would not be given.
Stating that the meals that the children will consume are prepared by the school staff, Balıkçı said, “We have a school kitchen, a cafeteria, all kinds of facilities. We will provide food that is prepared in a high nutritional and hygienic environment.” he said.