” We hope to have a relevant influence on the decisions made on the school canteen ”
“The goal – explains Bandini – is to inform citizens, and in particular parents and children who use the school canteen service, of the initiatives undertaken by a municipal commission of which little is known and which, in the past as now, too little it is often involved in the decisions on which it is up to as per the municipal regulations. “
“As has happened in all social contests – says Daniele Bandini -, the one we have been going through for two years now has a pandemic that has weakened relations between the parents who are members of the Commission, so the first job turned out to be to rebuild a group that could interact and exchange information within it effectively.
We therefore collected the contacts of the representatives of almost all the schools served by the school canteen and we created a group that was able to meet (online) and coordinate in view of the first meeting of the Commission on 12/14/2021 in order to be able to exhibit in a manner Get a President and a Secretary to attend and ask for some questions to be addressed that we felt it was important to bring to the attention of the administration. Unfortunately, that meeting did not prove to be a useful opportunity to deepen these questions sufficiently, but it allowed us to make contact with the stakeholders to start a series of smaller meetings in which to address the various issues. I want to summarize the most important ones below.
BLUE TRAYS: although Siena is one of the few realities in which they are currently used, it is not yet possible to eliminate their use for logistical and practical reasons; considering the return to the earthenware plate, we then pointed out to the administration that some schools are on one level only and therefore do not have to have important obstacles for the transport of the dishes, in these latest trends to a then to normality. The education office responded by undertaking to make the necessary checks. In addition, as there are reports of deterioration, we asked for the technical data sheet, certifications, instructions and advice for use of the trays themselves, as well as information on who carries out the necessary checks, how often, and how many trays have already been replaced with respect to to the total.
STRIKE: as everyone knows, in the first months of the school year we witnessed an all-out strike that resulted in many days of blank meals for our children. It was a situation that aroused a lot of clamor in the city and objectively difficult to manage, as union agreements are always a delicate and slippery ground on which to play, there are rights at stake that it is not our intention to question. On that occasion, however, limits emerged in these agreements: I am thinking of the variability of the menu in the event of prolonged strikes, of the possibility of providing a white meal in compliance with the percentage of adherence to the strike, of economic imbalances to the detriment of parents; so much so that the administration intervened urgently by managing some of these aspects. Well, the aim of preventing situations with such complex and emerging situations could be repeated, as the Commission we asked that there be a re-discussion of the trade union agreements and that a representation of the parents of the Mensa Commission could be present at the table. Here too we have had openings from the education office which we expect a follow up in the coming months.
TASTINGS IN SCHOOLS: this is perhaps the main activity of the parents of the Mensa Commission, and unfortunately the pandemic has made it impracticable for too long for safety reasons. In Autumn 2021 it seemed that we could think about how to resume this activity and we asked to be able to do it, but the epidemiological data soon blocked every possible step forward. However, our invitation to the administration on the individual still stands, new ways and spaces to safely carry out this fundamental control activity as soon as conditions permit.
COLD MEALS: this is also a problem that the pandemic and the structure of many schools in Siena have made annoying: due to the administration of meals in the classrooms (with the relative safety procedures), the time needed to serve all the classes, the need to serve the whole meal at once, the understandable obligation to air the premises often, it often happens that someone touches a meal at an inappropriate temperature. We have collected information and an indicator of a possible way forward to improve this aspect for the administration so that it can assess its effective technical, logistical and economic feasibility.
There are also other aspects to the tenders for the supply of foodstuffs, to the satisfaction questionnaires, to the dishes offered on the menus, to possible food education projects on which the attention of the Canteen Commission is linked.
Of all these questions – concludes President Bandini – we are talking with the interested parties through meetings and communications that we have made and that we intend to make understood, to gather a collaborative and informative spirit between the parties that they feel the need for.
In conclusion, I can summarize what is written above by reiterating that it is desirable for the Canteen Commission to have a recognized and relevant role in the future in the decisions that are taken on the process of providing the school canteen service, as required by the Municipal Regulations “