Grow-it-yourself school leads the way on lunches

Grow-it-yourself school leads the way on lunches

Children of Ban Koke Chamroen School have a good lunch every day due to their self-sufficient lunch programme.
Children of Ban Koke Chamroen School have a good lunch every day due to their self-sufficient lunch programme.

School children can eat hearty and healthy meals without having to rely much on the state subsidy if they grow and raise their own food, as the Ban Koke Chamroen School in Prasat district of Surin has found.

The primary school is leading by example with its lunch programme catering to 249 young students, who include those in kindergarten.

Ironically, it is located in the same jurisdiction as Ban Tani School which has been embroiled in a graft scandal involving spending on its lunch programme. The allegation prompted the transfer of the school director.

Administrators of Ban Koke Chamroen School figured the 20 baht state subsidy allocated per child per day to buy the school lunch would not stretch very far. The school has to be practical and self-sufficient where it needs to be.

For starters, the older students were enlisted to grow vegetables organically on the school's vast land, spanning 45 rai. They are common garden vegetables which can be cooked in many dishes suitable for children.

The school also dug up a pond for farming fish and pens for raising layer and broiler chickens.

The school also devised an accounting system that is open to audit. The produce, the eggs and the chicken meat are sold at low prices to the school's cooperative responsible for purchasing ingredients for cooking the school lunch programme.

What is left of the 20-baht subsidy is spent on buying ingredients, which the school cannot produce itself, such as pork and condiments, and hiring the cooks.

Some of the income from the sale of the produce is given to the students whose hands-on farming also teaches them occupational skills.

According to the school, the lunch programme provides a valuable lesson in hygiene and discipline. How lunches are served presentably in the canteen in a clean environment has been communicated to staff while the youngsters are told to queue up to be served by their older students.

The lunch model last year won the school an award given by the Public Health Ministry for promoting basic health.

Thawil Boonjeam, director of the Ban Koke Chamroen School, said the ingredients which the school is not able to produce such as watermelon and bananas are bought from local communities.

On some days, community members take part in cooking the school lunch and watering the vegetables in the school allotments.

After expenses are deducted, the school cooperative still has money left in its coffers from the 20-baht subsidy. "There's money circulating in the system and that the success we've made," he said.

In fact, the cooperative can afford to prepare breakfast for the youngsters who appear underfed while those who are obese are put on a regimented diet with reduced carbohydrate and larger servings of vegetables and fruits.

Mr Thawil said the school lists lunch menus five days a week. In four days, there are steamed rice and savoury dishes to go with it, plus fruit. The remaining one day is a bowl of rice topped with one savoury dish and dessert. Egg-based dishes are also served twice a week.

Mr Thawil added the school canteen does not sell sweets, snacks or fizzy drinks.

The school also regularly measures the students' height and weight and tallies their average growth. This has been done for six years, he said.

The director insisted the school lunch programme has no room for "opaqueness" in its finances. Who is in charge of what duties in the programme as well as financial status of the cooperative must be made clear.

Surin provincial governor Atthaporn Singhavichai said only a few schools in the province had problems with running their school lunch programmes. Typically, the schools appoint their own internal committee to keep track of the lunch programme. The provincial office is also sending inspectors to check on the lunch quality of schools in every district.

Mr Atthaporn added the lunch menus must be displayed for the sake of transparency.

Phanicha Inthachang, director of the Primary School Education Area 3 in Surin, said the Ban Koke Chamroen School has dietary specialists on hand to offer guidance on how to prepare nutritious meals.

Meanwhile, Boonrak Yodpet, secretary-general of the Office of the Basic Education Commission, said he has instructed directors of schools nationwide to check procurement projects connected to the lunch programme.

Ingredients bought must be fresh and at reasonable prices while the accounting system must be streamlined where needed to ensure transparency, he said.

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