The issues faced by school meal providers
2023
Riekstina-Dolge, Rita | Eglite, Marta | Krumina-Zemture, Gita
The quality of meals can directly affect children's health and growth. The Latvian school lunch program aims to provide hot lunches for students and it follows strict Latvian government guidelines of low salt and sugar, no fried or processed food meal plans. The catering industry of the public sector is facing significant economic challenges, as well as its operation is affected by the regional reform that took place in Latvia. The aim of the study was to evaluate the most important challenges and obstacles of service providers – entrepreneurs and municipalities in the provision of school lunches. In the study, a survey of entrepreneurs, school management, and representatives of the municipality was carried out. The results of the study showed that the majority of school catering services are provided as an external service (45.8%), the service is provided by both the external service and the municipality (37.5%) and the service is provided by the municipality (16.7%). The main risks in the provision of school lunches are the rapid rise in prices and insufficient state/municipal funding (45.62%), the decrease in the number of students (29.8%), the lack of qualified labour (22.8%) and pandemic restrictions (14%) etc. For some municipalities, the school lunch is perceived as a big financial pressure. The understanding of the availability and quality of the catering service is insufficient, municipal co-financing differs within the framework of the municipalities and rural territories and is different for individual social groups.
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