School meals to be changed with new academic year

CAIRO – 20 August 2017: The school meals will be changed with the beginning of the new academic year, Randa Halawa, official source at the Ministry of Education, stated on Sunday.

In statements to Egypt Today, Halawa affirmed that the new food strategy is aiming to avoid the food poisoning incidents that took place last year.

During the last academic year, about 2,750 students from several governorates including Cairo, Aswan and Sohag, had cases of poisoning after eating meals provided by their schools.

Accordingly, on March 2017, Minister of Education Tarek Shawky decided to stop the distribution of all meals in the state’s schools and begin investigations into the incidents.
“Several governmental entities including the ministries of education, social solidarity and supply shall supervise the meals to guarantee that they are safe and healthy.” Halawa said, explaining that the new meals will include only biscuits and pies.

The main purpose of distributing these meals is to help students focus during the school-day, according to Halawa’s statements. “No food storage will be allowed, and very high standards will be applied,” she added.