About the Experience in Parental Control over Nutrition in Schools of the Murmansk Region

Abstract

Introduction: Special attention is traditionally paid to monitoring nutrition in educational establishments as the forms and methods of work keep changing while the circle of participants expands. Parental control may serve as an important reserve for increasing the efficiency of control under the current conditions. Parental involvement in surveillance helps increase personal interest in principles of healthy eating and improve the overall hygienic literacy of inspectors and of those inspected. Objective: To analyze forms of implementing control over school meals. Materials and methods: Analytical and sociological methods were used to study the issues of providing hot meals for elementary school children, including satisfaction with the quality, quantity, and variety of meals and sufficiency of time to consume them within the survey conducted in the 2020/21 academic year in the city of Murmansk. The survey involved 21,755 schoolchildren, 17,977 parents, and 1,470 teachers. Together with parents, we rejected finished products, discussed the quality of school feeding, held Open Days and Degustation Days, summarizing the results of joint activities on a quarterly basis. Parental control measures were taken in accordance with MR 2.4.0180-20, Parental Control over Catering in General Education Institutions, approved by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation Anna Yu. Popova on May 18, 2020. Results: Since 2014, by agreement with school administration, parents and/or legal representatives of schoolchildren have been participating in parental quality control of school meals. Those having a personal health book are allowed to sample from the “common cauldron” and to control organizational activities in the dining room, including the compliance with the requirements of sanitary legislation for school catering. The findings of the sociological survey demonstrated that in 2020, children, parents and teachers were more satisfied with school feeding than in 2019. Conclusion: The experience of cooperation with parents in controlling school nutrition has proven its effectiveness and timeliness in taking corrective action to regulate logistics issues.