School lunches stuck at rock-bottom prices for years; national parents' alliance calls for reform: parents pay for ingredients, government subsidizes personnel and preparation costs

The ingredient cost per school lunch is less than 30 yuan, not even enough to buy a cup of bubble tea! School lunch fees vary from county to county, and the procurement process and standards are not transparent. The National Alliance of Parent Association Presidents (hereinafter referred to as the National Parents' Alliance) pointed out that of the school lunch fees parents pay to schools, only 65% to 70% is used for ingredients, and 25.7% of elementary and junior high schools across Taiwan do not use pork ingredients with the 3 Chapters 1 Q certification, making traceability difficult.

Parent groups suggest that the central government should follow Japan's example, using 100% of the fees paid by parents for raw ingredients, with the government subsidizing related personnel, water, electricity and fuel costs. In addition, ingredient procurement should be made transparent, and a dedicated school lunch law should be established.

Chen Ming-hsin, chairman of the Taipei City Meal Box Food Association, stated that the fundamental problem with school lunches is that the fees are too low, and that the school lunch prices of all counties and cities across Taiwan and local government subsidy situations are expected to be announced in April. Currently, the Council of Agriculture has raised the incentive subsidy to 6 yuan per meal per student, which merely makes up the price difference between imported and domestic ingredients and does nothing to improve the dishes. If fees are not raised, operators will also be "like a clever housewife who cannot cook a meal without rice."

Low ingredient costs, poor kitchen staff wages, high turnover of executive secretaries

There are 1.8 million students eating school lunches every day in the country, but the dishes vary greatly from county to county, because meal fees differ across counties and cities. Wang Han-yang, vice chairman of the National Alliance of Parent Association Presidents, gave an example: parents in Chiayi County pay 700 yuan per month, about 32 yuan per meal, of which ingredient costs account for at most 70%, which works out to less than 20 yuan, clearly on the low side.

"Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan are relatively problem-free." Food safety consultant Sun Wen-chang stated that whether the dishes are good depends entirely on whether local governments care, as the funding given to school lunches varies among county and city governments. In addition, meal fees not only buy ingredients but also cover kitchen equipment, water, electricity, gas and kitchen staff costs, and the school lunch executive secretary is a school employee doing the job part-time. Because it is a thankless task, most quit after a year, making it naturally difficult to maintain lunch quality.

Hsu Hui-yu, director of the Nutrition Center of the John Tung Foundation, stated that school lunches fall under local autonomy, and there should not be many schools with an ingredient cost below 20 yuan per meal, but the meal fee structure of each school in each county and city is not transparent. In the same county or city, different schools with the same fees and manpower serve completely different dishes. The school lunches children eat at school should not have such discrepancies.

Lunch fees cannot buy a cup of bubble tea, and meal catering operators are struggling too

Regarding the current state of school lunches in the country, Chen Ming-hsin, chairman of the Taipei City Meal Box Food Association, explained that school lunches across Taiwan fall into three types: public-owned and public-operated (run by schools themselves), public-owned and privately-operated (schools have hardware facilities, and meal catering operators take charge), and privately-owned and privately-operated, with the latter two being the most common, accounting for about 50% to 60%.

Regarding the National Parents' Alliance's statement that lunch fees at some schools are only 32 yuan per meal with ingredient costs below 20 yuan, Chen Ming-hsin believes that this is indeed the case for schools in central and southern Taiwan. "The most fundamental problem with school lunches is that the fees are too low." He said operators preparing group meals already have to bear ingredient and personnel costs, but producing quality requires a corresponding price.

Chen Ming-hsin gave an example: the governments of Taoyuan and the Taipei metropolitan area both provide subsidies so that students can eat organic vegetables once a week. Currently, the Council of Agriculture has also raised the ingredient incentive subsidy from 3.5 yuan to 6 yuan per meal per student. It appears to increase funding, but domestic chicken is about 80 yuan per kilogram while imported chicken is only 45 yuan per kilogram, so the increase in the incentive subsidy merely fills the price gap. "Now a cup of bubble tea costs 40 yuan, yet the cost per school lunch is still in the 30-something range. It's hard for us too!"

National Parents' Alliance: establish a dedicated lunch law as soon as possible, and make the procurement process transparent and open

The National Alliance of Parent Association Presidents believes that for students in remote areas, school lunch may be the best meal of the day, but problems accumulated over the years have never been resolved. Wang Han-yang stated that the alliance suggests the central government should follow Japan's school lunch system, using 100% of the fees paid by parents for raw ingredients, with the government subsidizing related personnel and hardware, water, electricity and fuel costs. In addition, a dedicated law for school lunches should be promoted as soon as possible.

Wang Han-yang added that currently the only central-level regulations on school lunches are Articles 22 and 23 of the School Health Act, resulting in 22 different sets of rules across Taiwan's 6 special municipalities and 16 counties and cities. School lunch ingredients, preparation and quality vary, and on-site food safety personnel and dietitians are scarce, making a dedicated law urgently needed to unify the standards.

Hsu Hui-yu stated that school lunches differ across counties and cities, and the meal fee structure, including all ingredients and procurement costs, should be made transparent and open for scrutiny. In addition, the government should take responsibility for source management and inspection rather than leaving it to individual schools and meal catering operators to bear on their own, because ensuring that students eat safe food is an inescapable duty of the government.

Ministry of Education: legislation still requires deliberation; low prices do not necessarily mean poor ingredients

In response to the appeal of the National Alliance of Parent Association Presidents, the Ministry of Education replied that in order to formulate a complete student lunch system and a legal basis for promoting food education, it has held multiple public hearings and symposia, but during the deliberation stage there are still opinions from all sides and emerging issues to be consolidated.

The Ministry of Education stated that ingredients should account for at least 70% of school lunch fees. Some schools' lunch supply is public-owned and public-operated, involving no profit, so their fees may be lower. In addition, schools purchasing local ingredients can reduce transportation costs because of the shorter distance to the place of origin. Therefore, it is not appropriate to judge ingredient quality by the price gaps in county and city ingredient tenders.