Ulaanbaatar
School Lunch program to be improved
Politics
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On June 1, Children’s Day, the Cabinet approved a national program on school food manufacturing and services and gave an order to Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sports Yo.Baatarbileg to develop plan for the program implementation and take control.
Expanding the initial school meal program at general education schools, the parliament has adopted a law on school food manufacturing and services, and the cabinet today approved the resolution to ensure effective implementation of the law.
Inspection agency and other corresponding agencies have concluded that the expanded school lunch program had been causing burden on school cafeterias and posing a threat to the food and hygiene safety at schools.
Therefore, the new program outlines objectives to have a unified supply of school food products, ensure proper management for food manufacturing facilities and training human resources in the area, have adequate system for provision of nutrition standards and meal requirements and so forth.
As studied by professional organizations, child obesity rates have greatly increased among school age children in the past decade. And an estimated 28.6 percent of all children aged 7-11 in Mongolia were overweight or obese, which is believed to be somewhat caused by poor quality diets in school environment.
