The cost of hot meals in Kazan schools will increase by 4 rubles from April 1

23 thousand students from preferential categories will continue to eat for free.

(KZN.RU, March 21). From April 1, the cost of hot meals in the schools Kazan will increase by 4 rubles. At the same time, the price of school lunches in the capital of Tatarstan will remain one of the lowest in Russia, and 23000 schoolchildren from privileged categories will continue to eat for free.

The cost of one meal for primary school students will be 66 rubles, two meals a day – 94 rubles. The cost of lunch for students of grades 5-11 will be 69 rubles.

Price changes are associated with an increase in the cost of food over a year and a half. Thus, according to Rosstat, the consumer price index for food products in the period from November 2017 to February 2019 reached 7.7%. The highest growth was recorded for dairy products and poultry meat, which play an important role in children catering. In addition, during this period, prices for fuel increased by 21%, communal services by 8%, VAT by 2%, and wage costs for cooks were increased. At the same time, the cost of food in schools of Kazan changed last time one and a half years ago in November 2017.

Today, the cost of school meals increases by only 4 rubles - 6.5 %. It is due to the work of the Department of Food and Social Catering of Kazan, through tenders and the purchase of large volumes of products directly from manufacturers, as well as partial compensation for the cost of organizing school meals from the income from the commercial activities of an enterprise.

Despite the upcoming cost change, the price of school hot meals in the capital of Tatarstan will remain one of the lowest in Russia. Thus, in Yekaterinburg, parents pay 105 rubles for one meal, in Nizhny Novgorod – 80 rubles, in St. Petersburg – 98 rubles. Schoolchildren belonging to preferential categories will continue to eat for free. These are 23 thousand children or 18% of all students. They will be provided with hot lunches at the expense of targeted financing from the city budget. This decision is made by the deputies of Kazan City Duma every year.

The current menu in all general educational institutions of the city is based on the wishes of students and the requirements of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Rules and Regulations. It takes into account seasonality, the required amount of basic nutrients and the required caloric content of the daily diet, differentiated by age categories of students. Samples of supplied products are subject to strict control by an accredited testing laboratory of food products and food raw materials, which is part of the department. Thanks to the effective control of incoming raw materials, more than 660 tons of various products that did not meet the requirements were returned to suppliers last year.

Parents of students will be able to regularly monitor the quality of school lunches themselves. From April 1, parental quality control journals will appear in all schools in the city. This initiative was supported by the Department of Education of Kazan. It has already been successfully tested in 20 schools in the city.

The Department works with the largest local manufacturers. The suppliers of the company are AO “Zelenodolsk Dairy Plant”, AO “Bakery and Confectionary Plant”, OOO “Kazan Bread Factory №2”, AO “Agrosila”, AO “Kazan Bread Factory №3”, AO “Yelabuga Meat-Canning Plant”, OOO “Poultry Breeding Company complex “Ak Bars”, OOO “Pestrechinka”, AO “Kazan Fat Plant”, “Kazan Dairy Plant”, OOO “Agrofirma Zalesny” (TD “Indyuzhina”), ZAO “Alekseevsky Milk Tinned Plant”, OOO “TC Maysky”, AO “Kukmoragrokhimservis”, production and trading company “Golden Kazan”, and others. The share of local producers in the total purchases of children catering products is 80%.