School Lunch Reform Begins with Citizen Action

As negative campaigning and gossip-laden whispers from the presidential election raged on, civic groups including the Homemakers United Foundation, Green Citizens' Action Alliance, and NewsMarket held a special forum last Friday (December 23) titled "Children's Future, Today's Bowl: A Look at All Aspects of School Lunch," examining the food safety and hygiene incidents and abuses triggered by a string of school nutrition lunch problems in recent years.

It was expected that the cold snap that day would dampen sign-up enthusiasm, but unexpectedly the forum drew a full house of about one hundred people from all walks of life, including educators, parents, small farmers, industry operators, and civic groups, packing the venue, the NGO Civic Center in Taipei. This highlights that school lunch is a public issue worthy of policy proposals from candidates for president or legislator of every party seeking voter approval.

Coincidentally, on the very day the forum was in full swing, a report from Apple Daily headlined "Group Meal Supply Halted, Affecting 51 Schools in New Taipei" said a food company operator implicated in the New Taipei school lunch scandal claimed financial difficulties and suddenly instructed a lawyer to send a letter to the New Taipei City Education Department, stopping the supply of school lunches to all schools effective immediately. The report said this unannounced halt shocked the New Taipei education sector, with an estimated 51 elementary and junior high schools and about 30,000 students affected in their meals.

School Lunch Reform Proposals

1. The procurement system should be open and transparent, including financial disclosure and parent participation

2. Require school lunches to adopt "public ownership and public operation," and establish kitchen equipment and staff training that meet food safety, hygiene, and environmental standards

3. Review the reasonableness of current school lunch prices

4. Promote the agricultural products supplied for school lunches toward environmentally friendly, pesticide-free, and organic production

5. Food ingredient procurement should meet safety, traceability, and source transparency, and implement local production and local sales as much as possible

6. Promote food education-related legislation and the integration of food and agriculture education

7. Require every school to have a dedicated dietitian to serve as a gatekeeper

8. Review the crowding out of other educational resources by the free "school lunch" policy

9. Encourage and assist local farmers in forming organizations to plan the production and supply of school lunch ingredients

Further Reading
Child, is your lunch nutritious? The Future in the Bowl: Special Topic Guide