Brave Parents Step Up: Hsinchu County School Lunch Parent Empowerment Workshop Report (Xibei Session)

On the morning of March 10, "Brave Parents Step Up to Protect Children's School Lunch: Hsinchu County School Lunch Parent Empowerment Workshop (Xibei Session)" was held in the large conference room of the Hsinchu County Stadium. The event featured presentations on "Current Progress of School Lunch Promotion in Hsinchu County," "Development of the School Lunch Movement Across Taiwan," "How Parents Can Participate in Kitchen Monitoring," and "The Importance of Keeping GMO Ingredients Out of School Lunch."

Valuing Children's School Lunch Hsinchu County Government Is Actively Coordinating "Local Production, Local Consumption"

Dietitian Chen and Dietitian Tsai from the Physical Education and Health Section of the Hsinchu County Education Department reported to parents on the various school lunch promotion efforts the Hsinchu County Government has carried out in past years and will carry out in the future. The Hsinchu County Government values children's school lunch, so the Education Department has also actively set up a school lunch webpage and is actively coordinating "local production, local consumption" matters with the Agriculture Department.

A Ten-Year Path of School Lunch Action

Chen Ju-wei, founder of the School Lunch Anti-GMO Action Team, drew on his own experience of participation to share with the parents concerned about school food safety the ten-year path of school lunch action by government and civil society from 2005 to the present.

In 2005, the Homemakers United Foundation held the "Big Tasting in Schools" forum, and then in 2006 and 2007, "Give Children a Healthy Future" parent workshops were held in counties and cities across Taiwan, not only putting forward the vision of making school lunch a national policy but also prompting the Ministry of Education to promise to fill nutritionist staffing in accordance with the School Health Act. In 2008, the Green Citizens' Action Alliance launched the "Mouth Revolution" linking indigenous homeland economies with school lunch; in 2011, Xizhou Nursery School and Yilan launched a local ingredient supply plan, Xiyuan Wheat and the National Federation of Teachers' Unions launched "Wheat Field Study," and NewsMarket produced a special feature on nutritional lunch and held a seminar at the end of that year; in 2012, Taichung City established a cross-departmental "School Lunch Promotion Committee" with civil participation, and Tainan City took the lead in announcing a "School Lunch Autonomous Ordinance" in 2013, New Taipei City began fully implementing a policy of one organic meal per week; in 2014, civil volunteers launched a campaign to remove GMO ingredients from schools; in 2015, the ingredient registration platform went fully online, while civil groups were brewing efforts to promote the enactment of a Food and Agricultural Education Act.

He said that none of this progress came out of thin air; it went through the efforts of many parents, civil groups, and competent authorities. And today's parent empowerment workshop in Hsinchu County is the beginning of the path for the next ten years.

From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on March 20, there will be a second round of workshops, and members of the public concerned about school lunch are welcome to participate.

Second round activity information and online registration: http://goo.gl/forms/3T5GjWlz9W