Andalusian Regional Government’s Minister of Education, María del Carmen Castillo, has defended this Thursday in the Plenary Session of the Andalusian Parliament that there is no “deterioration” in the quality or quantity of the meals offered in the school canteens of the educational centers in Córdoba. She has also specified that the incidents detected both in this province and in the rest of Andalusia have affected “less than 1% of the total number of canteens in Andalusia.”
Castillo responded in this way to the Andalusian parliamentarian for Córdoba for Por Andalucía, Rosa María Rodríguez, who has assured that “families of numerous public schools in Córdoba have for some time been reporting problems with the quality and with the quantity of the school meals,” and that these complaints “are spreading to the rest of the Andalusian provinces.” For this reason, she challenged the minister by asking her “what are the causes of the repeated deterioration in the quality and quantity of the meals from the school canteens in the province of Córdoba?”
Rodríguez has emphasized that “in Córdoba, out of 133 schools, there are only nine with their own kitchen,” and has argued that “the solution to this is to equip schools with their own kitchens,” backing “recovering those kitchens with public staff, with fresh and quality products,” rather than maintaining the current canteen service model managed by catering companies.
In the face of these criticisms and in relation to “the causes of the deterioration” of the meals served by the adjudicating companies, an issue raised by Rodríguez, the head of Education has reiterated that “there is no such deterioration,” while stating that her department applies measures “to guarantee that quality of the meals.”
Along these lines, Castillo has cited as an example that “last year 248 audits were carried out, 50 extraordinary inspections were conducted, and 15 sanction proceedings were opened, because I have never said that there are no incidents, what I am saying is that every day in Andalusia almost 200,000 children eat and every day meals are served in Andalusia, almost two million meals throughout the school year.”
In this context, she has acknowledged that "it is true that we have incidents," emphasizing that she "never" has denied it, and has explained that the Department is acting to "correct" those situations. In this sense, she has detailed that "a sanctioning file has been activated" that "ultimately affects 21 dining rooms in Córdoba, where a contractual infringement punishable by sanction has been found," although she has insisted that this number represents "less than 1% of the total dining rooms in Andalusia."
To conclude, María del Carmen Castillo has reiterated that at the Department of Education, they are "concerned about school dining rooms, because they are an instrument for reconciliation, and that is why we are dedicating time and effort to them." She has regretted that from Por Andalucía they want to "insist on the deterioration" of the dining rooms, something that, in her opinion, "does not match reality."