Every teacher in school is a 'chef'

Every kitchen is a classroom, school staff must be teachers, and teachers in schools must be dedicated chefs. Taking care of children's health in every meal is cultivating the future of the country.

Live healthy, learn many meaningful lessons from mealtimes

These are the messages that Dr. Le Van Tuan, senior expert, Department of Physical Education , Ministry of Education and Training, continuously emphasized at the training sessions on organizing boarding meals to ensure food safety and proper nutrition for primary schools held in Ho Chi Minh City in December 2024. The training session was attended by a large number of management staff at the Department of Education and Training of districts, schools, teachers, kitchen staff, and school health workers.

Helping students live healthy and green from school meals, every teacher and school staff are chefs, knowing how to cook from the heart to nurture the future.

The training session not only instructed the delegates on the process of ensuring that boarding meals for students are safe, nutritious, and ensure healthy and green living, but also reminded the experts of the responsibility of all those involved in creating safe, nutritious, and educational meals in the school environment.

According to Dr. Tuan, the kitchen is not simply a place for students to eat quickly and finish, but the organization of mealtimes for them must also be educational. First of all, discipline, eating and sleeping on time. Mealtimes must be organized humanely and scientifically , students must know how to serve themselves, clean up...

To do that, when entering the school, the cook, caterer, nanny, school health staff must all be pedagogues, not just teachers who educate students. Therefore, no matter what position they are in, they must fulfill their responsibilities well.

Children are taught skills of lining up and serving themselves during lunchtime.

Before mealtime, teachers and nannies need to do well in the "3-minute awareness change" part. Everyone should talk to the students about today's menu and the nutritional content of the dishes to make the meal enjoyable and for the students to understand the meaning of the dishes so they can eat deliciously. The school board also needs to regularly go to the kitchen and pay attention to whether the cafeteria has adequate lighting, is it too hot or noisy; are the tables and chairs clean; are the students comfortable; is it worthy of being the "second lecture hall" of the students...

Dr. Tuan suggested that schools could organize open lessons and experiential activities so that children could visit the kitchen and see how teachers work hard to create hot meals for them. Schools could also take students to farms where vegetables are grown to provide food for the school, so that they could understand the origin of food and appreciate the labor of farmers who create vegetables and tomatoes. From there, children can eat all their meals, avoid wasting food, know how to protect the living environment, and live healthy and green.

Trung Trac Primary School, District 11 (HCMC) invited parents to visit the kitchen and eat lunch with their children for one day so that parents could trust the school meals.

At Trung Trac Primary School, District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, the school kitchen is designed and installed according to Japanese standards. During mealtimes, teachers in the school board and homeroom teachers are present to remind students to eat more vegetables, fish dishes... to balance nutrition. School health workers and kitchen staff observe the dining area to see if students are enjoying their meals and listen to comments on each dish.

Doctor Huynh Trung Tuan, school health worker, Trung Trac Primary School, said that to help students live healthy, green lives from school meals, to have safe, balanced nutrition, and up to standards, every teacher and school staff must put their heart into it. We must consider those who eat as our children; only when our children eat well and finish their meals will we be happy. The same goes for homeroom teachers and nannies, we must consider students as our children eating at school.

Cooking with all your heart - nurturing the future

The main lecturer, Master Bui Thi Minh Thuy, member of the Center for Research, Conservation and Development of Culinary Arts of Ho Chi Minh City, emphasized this in training sessions on organizing boarding meals to ensure food safety and balanced nutrition for primary school students in Ho Chi Minh City.

Master Bui Thi Minh Thuy guided teachers participating in the training session on the rules of receiving, preparing, processing, serving and cleaning school kitchens. Ms. Minh Thuy concluded: "Every person working in the kitchen must "cook with all their heart", because the dishes that teachers cook today are "nourishing the future" of the children.

Children of Nam Sai Gon Kindergarten, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City during lunchtime

Not only at primary level, in Ho Chi Minh City, at preschool level, recently, the Departments of Education and Training such as District 11, Tan Binh District, District 7...; public and non-public preschools, private independent classes have all focused on training in menu building techniques to ensure proper nutrition for children.

As on January 10, District 11 organized a seminar on "Techniques for building a menu to ensure proper nutrition for children" at Thien Than Kindergarten. The training session was attended by Ms. Vu Thi Le Hang, an expert from the Department of Preschool Education, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, representatives of the Department of Education and Training of District 11, along with managers and teachers of preschools belonging to the team assessing the quality of child care and education of Ho Chi Minh City (Districts 6, 8, 11, Tan Phu, Binh Tan and Binh Chanh).

Previously, on November 6, 2024, Kindergarten 2, Tan Binh District organized a district-level seminar on "Techniques for building menus to ensure proper nutrition for children in kindergartens" for more than 107 managers and cooking staff of public and non-public kindergartens.

Teachers visited mealtimes held at Angel Kindergarten, District 11 to consult and exchange expertise on menu building techniques to ensure proper nutrition for children.

PHOTO: DISTRICT 11 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The training sessions emphasized important information to administrators, teachers, and kitchen staff of preschools. Such as creating a menu that ensures enough energy, balanced nutrients, is age-appropriate, and a menu suitable for children with allergies to certain foods. The menu for preschool children must ensure diverse nutrition, help children develop comprehensively, improve their health and resistance, stimulate their taste buds, and develop healthy and appropriate eating habits for children.

At the same time, the green and healthy living menu for preschool children must change daily/weekly (from 4-6 weeks, the salty lunch dishes do not overlap). Soups and stir-fries should be interspersed with leafy vegetables and root vegetables. At the same time, the menu needs to be diverse in many types of food (from 11 to 15 types of food each day) to prepare dishes for children. School managers must always pay attention to how to make children happy and excited during meals, eat all their meals, develop proper nutrition, and be healthy...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/giup-hoc-sinh-song-khoe-moi-thay-co-trong-truong-hoc-deu-la-mot-dau-bep-185250131153323539.htm