Nutritious meals guaranteed at Qingzhen schools

Students from Wangzhuang Primary School in Qingzhen enjoy lunch at the canteen. [Photo/Guiyang news network]

At noon on Dec 1, students from Wangzhuang Primary School in Qingzhen city in Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province, lined up to enter the canteen as the school bell rang.

With hot and nutritious meals whetting their appetites, they sat together around the table, and then tucked into some extra fruit and milk after finishing their main meals.

Thanks to a special fund provided by the central, provincial and municipal governments, as well as the children's families, students now not only have eggs, fruit, vegetables, meat and soup every day, but can also enjoy milk three times a week.

Qingzhen has arranged many hearings on school children's meals targeting different social groups, to solicit their opinions and suggestions over the years.

Meanwhile, a mechanism to promote the kind of dishes served at local school canteens has been implemented, and councils tasked with supervising children's diets have been established to ensure that students eat well and enjoy a healthy and balanced diet.

Zhang Heqi is one member of the council at Wangzhuang Secondary School. His child is currently a third-year middle school student. Zhang is responsible for issuing a regular report to parents about the school's food quality after first testing it himself, and he said he remains fully open to their proposals and suggestions.

"I am pretty clear about what my child is eating every day, and I am quite satisfied with that," said Zhang.

The school also pays special attention to the storage, processing, cleaning, and sampling of the food, as well as to canteen workers' health and sanitation.

So far, Qingzhen has allocated 39.86 million yuan ($5.55 million) for school students' dietary upgrade plan, benefiting 40,718 pupils from 83 schools.