School Meals Project Aims to Promote Healthy Eating Habits

JEDDAH, 15 May 2006 — There is no denying that obesity among children is a serious problem in our society. Because of unhealthy eating and lifestyles, our children are growing fatter and sicker. According to research, the rate of diabetes, high cholesterol and osteoporosis are on the rise among children and young adults.

The key to prevention is to educate and instill in children the habit of exercise and the desire to eat food that is both healthy and nutritious. In 1999, the Gulf Catering Company launched the schools nourishment project (Kako) under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.

The aim was to raise the standard of school meals. Today, Kako serves over one million primary, intermediate and secondary school students and manages over 3,000 school canteens daily in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.

The focus is catering to children’s dietary needs and promoting healthy eating habits. It is managed and operated by qualified Saudis with support from outside specialists.

Kako provides over 45 different food items — sandwiches, pastries, pizza, doughnuts, croissants and other items — to suit different tastes and age groups. The items are individually wrapped and delivered fresh every morning to schools.

A group of women journalists toured Kako’s Jeddah factory recently. Mohammed Qayed, an engineer in its quality ccontrol lab, spoke about daily hygiene checks, raw material testing and final product sample tests.

In the factory, employees are masked and gloved and, according to the general manager Fahad Al-Munajem, 91 percent are Saudi men. He explained that although they would like to employ women, the regulations and requirements make it difficult.

“Women must have a separate entrance, a guard, a separate department and prayer room and no mixing is allowed. All this is a problem because the machines have to be checked by an engineer every two hours. The quality control engineer has to check on the employees and products and the managers want easy access in order to monitor and evaluate. Also, not many women want to work nine-hour shifts,” Al-Munajem explained. There are, however, four women in the public relations department and they follow up and check on the canteen work in girls’ schools.

The project manager, Saad Al-Ghamdi, said, “Earlier, there were many problems with school canteen service — poor hygiene, the poor quality of food and unhealthy preparation using too much fat, sugar and salt.”

In addition to the items produced in the factory, Kako has agreed with other companies to provide extra concentrated juices especially made for schools. “We have also managed to increase milk consumption in schools from almost 0 to 13 percent,” said Al-Munajem.

While most students like what is offered now in school canteens, some said they miss fried foods and the home-made-tasting items prepared and sold by different suppliers.

It’s hard to satisfy all tastes and wishes but it is always worth trying to convince childen to eat healthy foods. It is up to parents to encourage their children to eat more fruit and vegetables.