The City Council of Vila Nova de Famalicão assumed this year the direct management of school meals in all levels of education, from pre-school to high school, and the Mayor of the City Council assured yesterday that the municipality "is committed to ensuring balanced meals, quality and appropriate to the nutritional needs of our children and youth".
Mário Passos was speaking this Tuesday, September 20, on the visit he made to the cafeteria and kitchen of the Basic School D. Maria II, whose space was recently intervened by the City Council.
Recall that for school meals the municipality channels more than 3.8 million euros, with more than 1.3 million meals served.
For the municipality, meals in the pre-school and 1st cycle cost 2.68 euros and those in the 2nd and 3rd cycles and high school 2.79 euros. The maximum value that a student can pay for a meal is 1,46 euros, which corresponds to the value paid by a student without a school level. For students in the A level, the meal is free, with a reduction of the value for students in the remaining school social action levels. In a direct support to the families of the municipality, the municipality also grants bonuses to second and other descendants attending pre-school and 1st cycle education.
About the works carried out in the canteen of EB 2.3 D. Maria II, reason that led the mayor to visit yesterday the school, it should be noted that it involved a municipal financial effort of 107 thousand euros and implied, among other works, the replacement of the floor, painting the walls, remodelling the pantry and the kitchen and all its equipment and infrastructure.
"It was a deficit long flagged up by the school management and it's another one of those small interventions that will make a lot of difference. The dimension of food is a concern for the municipality and here at Escola D. Maria II it is no longer a problem", said the mayor.
The director of the group thanked the availability of the municipality for the completion of the work. Cândida Pinto recalled that the space was never intervened and that it now meets all the conditions to provide "more and better meals" to the approximately 700 students of this educational establishment in the parish of Gavião.
The responsible still recalled, "with 31 years, the school needs a requalification in its fullness". While the funds are not made available by the Portuguese state, the municipality will intervene some spaces, having already ensured the requalification of the playing field.