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Logistics center to help farmers sell their products and to help schools purchase good-quality local foods
Logistics center
Mechanism of interaction between producers of agricultural products and its customers - schools, kindergartens, hospitals which purchase foods for their canteens from local farmers
- Participation in state tenders
- Purchase and storage
- Providing schools with local products
- Laboratory quality control
We support local farmers
The National School Feeding Programme in the Kyrgyz Republic has been implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science since 2006. Its main objective is to improve education quality, the social and economic situation and strengthen the health of primary schoolchildren. Thanks to the National programme, all primary schoolchildren in rural schools receive free meals. But what kind of free meals!
A small amount of money is allocated from the Republican budget. In most cases, funds are enough only to provide a child with tea and a bun. Of course, this is difficult to be called a "good diet". Therefore, the government of the Republic was seeking the assistance of UN WFP.
As a result, the project "School Meals Optimization Program in the Kyrgyz Republic" was launched in 2013. Within the framework of the project, the Social and Industrial Foodservice Institute helped to re-equip canteens and kitchens of 266 schools in 40 districts of the Republic, so that students of these schools could receive full-fledged hot meals.
A small amount of money is allocated from the Republican budget. In most cases, funds are enough only to provide a child with tea and a bun. Of course, this is difficult to be called a "good diet". Therefore, the government of the Republic was seeking the assistance of UN WFP.
As a result, the project "School Meals Optimization Program in the Kyrgyz Republic" was launched in 2013. Within the framework of the project, the Social and Industrial Foodservice Institute helped to re-equip canteens and kitchens of 266 schools in 40 districts of the Republic, so that students of these schools could receive full-fledged hot meals.
We also helped develop a training program for canteen staff of the schools participating in the project. The cooks now regularly receive advanced trainings on various issues of the organization of school feeding. The training includes theoretical and practical trainings on sanitary and hygienic standards, observance of safety regulations, basics of technological processes, techniques for cooking dishes and menu development.
Now the situation with school feeding in the country is as follows: there is a law on the organization of school feeding, developed documents, all schools provide free meals to primary schoolchildren. 35% of the schools provide hot lunches and breakfasts, the rest of the schools are seeking to transfer to the hot meal model. What is missing, then?
As of today, local farmers are hardly involved in public tenders for the procurement of foods for school feeding. Meanwhile, it is important to purchase agricultural products (vegetables, greens, fruits, dried fruits, berries) from them, not from large retail chains.
When stored properly, locally produced foods contain more nutrients and vitamins. Their path from the garden to the plate is much shorter than that of products imported from other countries. In addition, the procurement of food products from local agricultural producers facilitates the social and economic development of the country.
In order to help farmers sell their products on the one hand, and to help schools purchase good-quality local foods on the other hand, we proposed FAO to establish a Logistics center in Kemin district, Chuy region.
Now the situation with school feeding in the country is as follows: there is a law on the organization of school feeding, developed documents, all schools provide free meals to primary schoolchildren. 35% of the schools provide hot lunches and breakfasts, the rest of the schools are seeking to transfer to the hot meal model. What is missing, then?
As of today, local farmers are hardly involved in public tenders for the procurement of foods for school feeding. Meanwhile, it is important to purchase agricultural products (vegetables, greens, fruits, dried fruits, berries) from them, not from large retail chains.
When stored properly, locally produced foods contain more nutrients and vitamins. Their path from the garden to the plate is much shorter than that of products imported from other countries. In addition, the procurement of food products from local agricultural producers facilitates the social and economic development of the country.
In order to help farmers sell their products on the one hand, and to help schools purchase good-quality local foods on the other hand, we proposed FAO to establish a Logistics center in Kemin district, Chuy region.
| What does the Logistics Center offer? Logistics Center is a mechanism of interaction between producers of agricultural products and its customers. Schools, kindergartens, hospitals purchase foods for their canteens from local farmers. It is beneficial to both parties. Farmers supply grown vegetables to the centralized location, rather than deliver to different points, which significantly reduces their spending on the delivery and storage of the products. A farmer is always sure: everything he has grown will be sold, because the food products were grown according to pre-arranged orders of the schools. It is also beneficial for the schools: it is not necessary to store food products in school warehouse for a long time, but it is possible to buy fresh vegetables for cooking school meals every two weeks. No need to worry about price changes during the year. Logistics Center guarantees a fixed purchase price, which is specified in the contract. One can be sure in the quality of food products. Employees of Kemin District Center for Disease Prevention and State Sanitary-Epidemiological Surveillance will regularly work in the Logistics Center. They will take food products for quality control in in their laboratory, take part in the acceptance of goods to warehouses and monitor the proper storage of food products. The Supervisory Board, which will include representatives of the district administration, district schools, farmers' associations, local community and the Economic Development Foundation of Kemin District will monitor the work of the Logistics Center and assist in its development. |
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