Why do i say that our school food service is stagnant especially in rural area..1st the environment of the canteen is the same since 30 years ago till now. The differences are only there are curtains, tableclothes and fans but the table and bench are still the same been used till now. In term of technology wise, we are going forward like handphone, GPS, MP3 etc.. But why our institutional foodservice or school canteen are still stagnant?Look at the canteen kitchen layout and the equipment been used.. is it in the path for the better future for healthy eating. In my opinion, i dont think so...
And for sure the food contractor do not have standardized recipe.. What is standardized recipe? Well if they want to cook fried rice.. there should have the list of ingredients and method of cooking.. If they are offering fried rice for RM1.. The standardized recipe will help to formulate the cost of the ingredient for selling price at RM1..That's why we can see in different canteen there are variety ways food contractor offering fried rice. Why do the food contractor like to increase their food price?The reason is because of the cost of preparing the food are increasing because of our slow growth economy.. The food contractor will complained that they are not gaining much of profit. School food service is an institutional business.. it is not a commercial business such as fancy cafe or family, ethnic, fast food restaurant. The customers are captive market which means that they are the same customers everyday.
For me, that is not a wise way to solve the problem especially in Elementary school/primary school in suburban and rural area...The food contractor must not only have experience but also know how to make decision in managing school canteen. There are many ways we can reduce the cost of preparing the ingredients..A) Buy in bulk for non perishable item such as sugar,flour, rice etc.. B) Forecasting selling item for the whole week and plan to buy food for a week.. meaning food storage is important especially for perishable item such as poultry, eggs, vege etc. C) Menu planning is actually vital for the food contractor to plan what they should buy for future.. The most important thing is to select food vendors or suppliers.. Dont buy at grocery store in small amount because the price is different than buying in bulk..
I am not blaming food contractor 100%.. some are good especially for them who have foodservice experience and education background. That's why i dont agree when the tender is open for selecting food contractor to manage the canteen.. some of the selected food contractors didnt have any food service experience or education background. That's why food poisoning still happening in school.. According to World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2008 that food poisoning is among the top five main notifiable disease in MALAYSIA. Majority of the outbreaks occuring in schools.. Are we proud about it? For sure the answer is NO. Its not that the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health didnt do their work.. They did what they can but we as parents, we have PIBG.. so what should we do?
The school management also have to play their role in monitoring the canteen activities.. They have the canteen mangement guideline as a reference..i understood why the canteen committees sometime overseen the activities in the canteen because they have other things to do according to the schedule and canteen is not their priority or expertise.. maybe its time to create a job where a person in charge of monitoring the canteen activities especially in menu offering.. maybe menu variety will help to balance up the children nutrients. But HOW do we do that?Hmm.. lets think...think... think..
Next issue.. who cooks for our children in school canteen? Local or foreigner?
