The "Healthy Meal" program must be generalized at the national level, PNL deputy Raluca Turcan said on Thursday, claiming that this project brings children to school, supports vulnerable families and gives stability to communities.
"I see the internet full of pictures of politicians applauding the 'School Meals' Program. It's good that it's being applauded today, but the truth is that the road to get here was long and not at all politically convenient. (...) When I launched the healthy meals program in 2016 (the bill was submitted in 2013, so it took a while to put it into practice!!!) I was told that it was cheap populism and that 'there's no money'. I was insulted and personally insulted just because I fought for the implementation of this program. I started then with 50 schools, at a time when few had the courage to believe that a healthy meal could keep children in school. Today, after almost ten years, we are talking about almost 1,500 schools and over 520,000 students and preschoolers who have a varied meal at school. The data confirmed exactly what we knew: where there is a meal at school, attendance increases and dropout decreases," the liberal MP wrote on Facebook.
According to her, in rural communities there are "painfully" many children who go to school because they have one meal a day there, and for them school is the only real chance to get out of the circle of poverty.
"In parallel, we continue to throw money at an outdated program - 'Corn and Milk' - with ridiculous budgets and almost non-existent results. 0.70 lei for fruit, 1.11 lei for milk, 0.65 lei for bakery. In too many schools, the products end up in the garbage or animal feed. Waste of public money, zero educational effect and reduced nutritional value", Turcan emphasized.
In her opinion, the solution is simple and perfectly achievable: giving up "Corn and Milk" and transforming the entire school nutrition program into a healthy meal program.
"Straightforwardly put: 'Healthy Meal' must be generalized at the national level. A hot meal of 16.5 lei per day, with the possibility of supplementation from local budgets, brings children to school, supports vulnerable families and gives stability to communities. And I don't want anyone to tell me that there is no money, because if the money is not thrown away on party companies and bad products, I guarantee you that the money will be found! The Ministry of Education must present a serious analysis of both programs, let's see in which schools they have been implemented properly and let's see how much money can come from European funds and how much must be covered from the national budget to implement 'Healthy Meal' at the national level. Romania promised this in 2016. I hope we don't wait another ten years to do what we already know works", stated the vice-president of the PNL group of deputies.
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