Controversy over semi-boarding meals right at the beginning of the school year
In Hanoi, many parents reflected on the situation of late meal delivery. Like September 8, at 11:55 am, the supplier transported rice and food to Thanh Oai Primary School (Kim Thu branch) while students of Kim Bai Primary School had to wait until 1 pm to have lunch.
Principal of Kim Bai Primary School - Mr. Pham Trung Anh confirmed the incident and said that the local government has terminated the meal supply contract with An Viet Company from September 9. Currently, the school is temporarily suspending the semi-boarding meal to wait for Thanh Oai Commune People's Committee to find a new unit.
The interruption of semi-boarding meals makes many families proactively manage to ensure lunch for their children.
In Ho Chi Minh City, many students cannot eat or rest at noon at school because semi-boarding activities have not been organized. Parents have to pick up their children at home in the middle of the day and then bring them back to school in the afternoon.
Mr. Nguyen Kieu Le Quan (Nha Be commune) who has two children studying at Nguyen Van Troi Elementary School (Khanh Hoi ward), said that when the school did not organize semi-boarding, the family had to take 4 rounds of pick-up and drop-off each day. Each round takes about 45 minutes, which is very time-consuming and laborious.
Similarly, Mr. Vo Van Minh (Khanh Hoi ward) has two children studying at two different schools. When the semi-boarding organization was not stable, he had to arrange work to pick up and drop off his children at noon and then return to school in the early afternoon.
Not only are there inadequacies in semi-boarding organization, but the quality of semi-boarding meals also worries parents.
Parents of Trung Gia Primary School (Trung Gia commune, Hanoi) reflected that the semi-boarding meal for their 1st grade child on the first day of school was sparse, only a handful of stir-fried bean sprouts, minced meat and a small skewer of meat, while each meal cost 40,000 VND (parents paid 12,000 VND, Hanoi People's Committee supported 28,000 VND).
Vice Chairman of Hanoi City People's Committee Vu Thu Ha directed and assigned Trung Gia Commune People's Committee to urgently inspect and clarify the reflected information, and at the same time strictly handle violations if any.
Temporary solution
During the time before semi-boarding is organized, schools in Ho Chi Minh City proactively plan to support students and reduce pressure on parents. At Trung Nhat Primary School, the school allows students to study 1 session/day, and at the same time arranges off-peak school hours between grades for parents to conveniently pick up and drop off.
At Dang Tran Con Primary School, for students whose family circumstances are not convenient for picking up and dropping off, the school arranges teachers to support guarding. Parents send food for them to have lunch and rest in class before continuing afternoon classes.
The failure to organize semi-boarding at some schools at the beginning of the school year may be related to facilities, human resources and service organization when many schools in Ho Chi Minh City have just implemented mergers. However, when this activity is implemented, food safety is still a requirement that cannot be taken lightly.
How to ensure the quality of boarding meals?
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Ms. Tran Thi Huong - Principal of Van Bao Primary School (Ha Dong ward) - said that the most important key to helping the school operate stablely in semi-boarding is consensus and transparency right from the first stage.
At Van Bao Primary School, the school has established a semi-boarding supervision team with the participation of the Board of Directors, representatives of teachers and especially the direct companionship of parents' representatives. Every day, the process of receiving and processing food takes place with full steps" - Ms. Huong said.
Along with manual monitoring, parents can also apply information technology to manage school meals through the HanoiCheck application. At the same time, the AI camera system expected to be installed in many school kitchens will also help parents more conveniently monitor and supervise their children's semi-boarding meals.
Assessing the changes in the selection of catering providers according to new regulations (local authorities organize bidding, then authorize schools to sign operating contracts), the Principal of Van Bao Primary School said that this is a policy to improve legality and tighten state management.
However, from a practical management perspective, Ms. Huong also gave frank comments on the contractor's capacity problem. The fact that one unit wins the bid to supply to many schools in the same area sets very high requirements for scale and operating experience.
For schools without kitchens, which have to transport meals from outside, the supply unit must have sufficient capacity of vehicles, specialized vehicles and calculate factors such as traffic, travel time. Otherwise, just a small incident on the road such as traffic jam or vehicle breakdown will affect students' eating time" - Ms. Huong analyzed.
At Phan Van Tri Primary and Secondary School, Ho Chi Minh City, because there is no on-site kitchen, the school orders meals from external units. Principal Le Hong Thai said that the supplier is selected through annual bidding.
The school and representatives of parents directly survey and evaluate units according to many criteria such as one-way kitchen process, processing conditions, transportation distance from kitchen to school and service scale.
At Hiep Tan Elementary School, after arranging schools, the scale of students increased, the school changed the operation of the kitchen in the direction of hiring specialized units to implement. The food receiving stage and the processing stage are arranged into two parts to increase cross-check capacity.
Principal Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet said that the school controls food origin records, and at the same time calculates the plan to use two independent suppliers at two facilities. This is to create quality competition and limit dependence on one supply source.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, in preparation for the 2026-2027 school year, the department organizes training classes on health, food safety and food poisoning prevention in schools.
Schools are required to control raw material sources, perform 3-step food inspection, store food samples and ensure traceability.
