Healthy food: investment and hope for Palestinian school canteens

Atef Daghlas-Yasuf / Salfit

Like her classmates Rosen Amjad is in a long line waiting to buy her need from the school canteen, and after the trouble she got her request, a packet of cooked rice, yoghurt and a piece of home ring candy and went to the main square to eat what she hastily bought.

In the center of the Yasuf Eskaka Girls' Secondary School near the northern West Bank city of Salfit, Rosen and her classmates roamed for breakfast during a working day in a scene that looked like they were around the dining table in their homes.

Rosen wants healthy, nutritious food that contains proteins and vitamins that provide her with energy and vitality during the study, and does not cause damage that can be caused by ready-to-eat foods such as "chips" and soft drinks, but found that the school meal not to bring food from home.

Home Healthy Food
Since Maram Farid, 34, and her cousin, Rima Sharif, 37, have vowed to provide the school with the best home-cooked healthy foods to the point where they have distinguished themselves from among hundreds of schools in the West Bank, especially in their governorate.

Three years ago, the idea came to light when the school was celebrating the Palestinian Heritage Day.It brought food from home that varied between Mujdara, Mokhsin and Muftoul (popular Palestinian food) and wrapped it in preservative containers, to find a great demand and encouragement from the students and the school administration.

Multiplicity and dietary diversity
At 4 am, the two women wake up and start baking pastry that takes a long time, then move on to prepare cooked food from grape leaves, rice, tabbouleh and pasta, as well as home desserts, hot soups such as lentils and cold drinks such as fresh lemon juice with mint and buttermilk, as well as corn and lupine.

Maram and her companion prepare four kinds of healthy food a day, two sweets and two soups and fresh juices.

Although work is as profitable as ready-to-eat food, they find "nutritional diversity" an opportunity for creativity and delicacy to maintain their lead in ensuring their school canteens.

The two women are busy in the arrangement of the exhibits of food well, they arrived late and they have to start preparing some food in the canteen, such as yoghurt to be fresh, but Maram told us that the hope of a good season for them, if they avoid "sudden" holidays and school activities "without order With them, such as group breakfasts and the like.

An attractive school environment
With all her strength, Maram seeks to impose herself in the cafeteria through what she prepares.

It is noteworthy that the prices of meals provided are not exorbitant, and that the student can, with an estimated cost of half a US dollar to buy more than one type of food and sweets together.

Difficult economic conditions, fluctuating salaries of staff and high prices of goods remain factors affecting the work of the two women, but they find in the healthy and clean environment available in the school motivated to move forward their work and "excellence and exclusivity" among the city canteens.

The school's motivation and awareness of female students has contributed to increasing demand for purchase, and the strenuous efforts made by the success of the school principal's success helps the students to a great extent commitment to shopping from the cafeteria, especially as teachers and role models.

Attractively, the walls and yards of the school are decorated with artistic paintings and slogans above it symbolize the preservation of health and the environment by educating students on various topics, such as useful food and hygiene.

In its bylaws, the Ministry of Education prohibits the sale of certain foods that it says are unhealthy in school canteens that have recently started delivering them to charitable and feminist associations, as is the case with Maram and Rima with the Yasuf Women's Club, especially in villages and rural areas to ensure fresh and healthy food for students.

The ministry may not actually have all the canteens caught and obliged to sell healthy food, but it is capable of setting limits and preventing those canteens from selling unhealthy foods, which it is currently doing.

Positive relationship
According to Mustafa Abu Saada, a nutrition expert and director of school health at the Ministry of Education in Salfit, there is a strong correlation between students' academic achievement, effectiveness and school activity, and the nature of their food.

To ensure the best food and health diversity for students, the ministry is conducting exploratory tours in schools, as well as awareness campaigns for students. Clipboard.

All of Maram and Rima's experience put them in one basket, making healthy food and drink, so that they could set the first rules for their larger kitchen, our kitchen, to prepare food inside the village without confining school canteens.