Inabie reports nutritionists evaluate foods in schools
They say lunch menu meets nutritional specifications
Lisania Batista
SANTO DOMINGO. The director of the Institute for Student Welfare (Inabie) assured reporters yesterday that they are taking the pertinent measures in order to avoid that the School Lunch Program might tend towards obesity in the students of the program of the Extended School Day.
René Jaquez Gil said that they have a balanced menu that should be applied in all the schools of the country.
"This menu was formulated taking into consideration the amount of nutrients that the students need, as well as considering the volumes or amount of food that a student should receive," said Jaquez Gil.
The menu is prepared in order to suppliy 70% of the nutrients that the children and adolescents who benefit from the program require and is based on the fact that the remaining 30% corresponds to the parents providing supper.
This was the answer given by the director of Inabie to the worry by the endocrinologist Felix Escaño, who suggested forming a team of nutritionists in order to evaluate the foods that are being served to the students in order to avoid overweight and obesity.
He pointed out that in their guidelines it is that they serve the amount of food that the children need rather than the volume, which has generated complaints by some parents who feel that the quantity of food is better than the quality, which he assured reporters was a mistake.
Jaquez Gil also recalled that they have a department of health and nutrition which is responsible for making up the menu and is composed of specialists in the area and is accompanied by national and international advisors, such as the United Nations Food Program and by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Another bit of information that he offered is that they maintain a system of permanent training for suppliers of school foods, for the directors of the public schools and for the district and regional directors, so that they support in their work of guidance on everything that has to do with respect to the menu that they have established and in support of the promotion of balanced food.
Exchanges
Due to the fact that in some areas of the country that availability of some foods is limited and that the students reject others, the Inabie director and his team of nutritionists that is directed by Doctor Stephanie Pou, added a new menu of exchanges of foods that have the same nutrients.
Pou said that each year they are working with variations of the menu, since what they are looking for is that it should be regionalized to the culture of each group of people.
At the present time they are working on a system of food and nutritional supervision where they take the weight and size of a sample of students in different schools at the beginning of the year and they repeated at the end of the school year, in order to see the nutritional state of the student. At the present time they are applying this in a pilot plan in Monte Plata and they are thinking of extending it to other provinces.
General recommendations
The Inabie has a series of requisites in order to guarantee the reception of the foods among which they cite that they should respond to the technical chart of the Institute.
Canned foods should not present dents, rust or signs of deterioration.
They require the verification of the "sell by dates" on all the products, as well as placing the most recent food in back or underneath that which is in existence in the warehouse. They also assigned an exclusive area for storage.
René Jaquez Gil said that they have a balanced menu that should be applied in all the schools of the country.
"This menu was formulated taking into consideration the amount of nutrients that the students need, as well as considering the volumes or amount of food that a student should receive," said Jaquez Gil.
The menu is prepared in order to suppliy 70% of the nutrients that the children and adolescents who benefit from the program require and is based on the fact that the remaining 30% corresponds to the parents providing supper.
This was the answer given by the director of Inabie to the worry by the endocrinologist Felix Escaño, who suggested forming a team of nutritionists in order to evaluate the foods that are being served to the students in order to avoid overweight and obesity.
He pointed out that in their guidelines it is that they serve the amount of food that the children need rather than the volume, which has generated complaints by some parents who feel that the quantity of food is better than the quality, which he assured reporters was a mistake.
Jaquez Gil also recalled that they have a department of health and nutrition which is responsible for making up the menu and is composed of specialists in the area and is accompanied by national and international advisors, such as the United Nations Food Program and by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Another bit of information that he offered is that they maintain a system of permanent training for suppliers of school foods, for the directors of the public schools and for the district and regional directors, so that they support in their work of guidance on everything that has to do with respect to the menu that they have established and in support of the promotion of balanced food.
Exchanges
Due to the fact that in some areas of the country that availability of some foods is limited and that the students reject others, the Inabie director and his team of nutritionists that is directed by Doctor Stephanie Pou, added a new menu of exchanges of foods that have the same nutrients.
Pou said that each year they are working with variations of the menu, since what they are looking for is that it should be regionalized to the culture of each group of people.
At the present time they are working on a system of food and nutritional supervision where they take the weight and size of a sample of students in different schools at the beginning of the year and they repeated at the end of the school year, in order to see the nutritional state of the student. At the present time they are applying this in a pilot plan in Monte Plata and they are thinking of extending it to other provinces.
General recommendations
The Inabie has a series of requisites in order to guarantee the reception of the foods among which they cite that they should respond to the technical chart of the Institute.
Canned foods should not present dents, rust or signs of deterioration.
They require the verification of the "sell by dates" on all the products, as well as placing the most recent food in back or underneath that which is in existence in the warehouse. They also assigned an exclusive area for storage.
Lisania Batista
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