Nutrition at elementary school age plays an important role in the development of children.

The training workshop on Enhancing nutrition-balanced menu building capacity, under the School Meal Project, was jointly organized by Gia Lai Department of Education & Training and Ajinomoto Vietnam on October 13rd.

The event was attended by Associate Professor PhD Dr. Bui Thi Nhung - National Institute of Nutrition - Ministry of Health, Ms. Le Thi Thuong - Deputy Head of Primary Education Department, Gia Lai Education and Training Department and representatives of 80 primary schools, including boarding ones and those that plan to serve boarding meals in the province.

Associate Professor PhD Dr. Bui Thi Nhung was sharing the importance of nutrition at primary school age to the development of children.

Nutrition at elementary school age plays an important role in the development of children. During this stage, their body begins to accumulate necessary nutrients for the rapid development at puberty. A good nutritional foundation will help children develop comprehensively in both stature and intellect. 

In addition, nutritional knowledge as well as scientific and healthy eating habits educated for children at this stage will last and follow them for the rest of their lives. Improving children’s nutritional status through rational school meals is one of the key contents of the National Strategy in Nutrition and the General Plan on Physical and Stature Development of Vietnamese People in the period of 2011- 2030.

Understanding the issue, Ajinomoto Vietnam researched and initiated the School Meal Project in 2012. The Project has received deep professional advice and support from the National Institute of Nutrition - Ministry of Health as well as the co-operation from the Ministry of Education and Training in deploying to schools through conferences on implementing the “Nutrition-balanced Menu Development Software”.

Till September 2018, there have been 2,923 primary boarding schools in 44 provinces and cities across the country, implementing the software in menu preparation, including Gia Lai province.

After more than a year of implementing the Project, Gia Lai Department of Education and Training continues to co-operate with Ajinomoto Vietnam to organize a training workshop on enhancing menu building capacity through the “Nutrition-balanced Menu Development Software”.

At the training workshop, the Project Management Unit introduced to schools the Sample menu set for Central region, meeting the recommended nutritional needs as well as local food sources. Based on this menu set, school representatives practiced making new nutrition-balanced menus by the Project’s software. During the practice, the Project Management Unit directly instructed and answered questions so that schools could master the software after the training workshop.

In the mean time, Ms. Le Thi Thuong - Deputy Head of Primary Education Department also guided schools to apply the poster of “Three minutes to change awareness” for pupils before each lunch.

With nutritional information illustrated vividly in images, this is a tool to assist schools in  educating nutritional knowledge and food benefits for pupils, helping to form their interest in food, thereby shaping  their healthy eating habits.

According to Associate Professor PhD Dr. Bui Thi Nhung, in developed countries, school meals are clearly and specifically regulated in terms of nutritional standards, food hygiene and safety. 

In particular, in Japan, for a boarding school to be put into operation, there has to be a Bachelor in Nutrition that is professionally trained to calculate and build nutrition-balanced menus for the school, which has been made into law and enacted since 1954. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, boarding schools are usually constructed to meet the needs of parents. Boarding staff that are directly in charge of children’s meals are not qualified in nutrition.

As a result, boarding meals are just enough and delicious, and haven’t met the demand in nutrition. The School Meal Project initiated and implemented has been contributing a practical solution to the situation.

After the training workshop, local primary school in Gia Lai province will be able to master the software in boarding menu preparation, bringing out nutrition-balanced meals, hence improving stature and intellect for pupils in the province.