Epsy Campbell Makes
Her Presidential Bid Official
Court Orders The
Creation Of A Specialized Hospital For the
Criminally Insane
Up And Down Price of
Gasoline
GSM Signal Problems
Expanded To Heredia, Cartago and San Jose
Training On School
Cafeteria, Store Management To Be Offered in
Guanacaste
Training On
School Cafeteria, Store Management To Be
Offered in Guanacaste
(InfoWebPress) — With the goal of giving
workers in charge of school cafeterias and
concessionaires and workers operating school
food stores (known locally as “sodas”) the
basic tools to prepare healthy meals and
maintain adequate levels of hygiene, the
Ministry of Education (MEP) has opened a
period for these individuals to register for
training opportunities on food handling and
healthy choices.
The program is offered by MEP’s Equality
Programs Division, in coordination with the
National Learning Institute (INA). In this
first phase, workshops will be conducted in
San Jose, Desamparados, Cartago, Liberia,
Cañas, Nicoya and Santa Cruz.
The goal of the workshops is to teach basic
techniques related to selecting, storing and
preparing food so that it is harmless and
maintain its quality and nutritional value.
The program will begin during the current
school year and is expected to reach schools
throughout the country. Ultimately, this
initiative’s chief aim is to increase the
nutritional value of the food consumed by
the student population.
Anabelle Castillo, director of the Equality
Programs Division, encouraged school cooks
who have not yet received this course to
register. “We want to guarantee that the
meals served at school cafeterias are
adequately prepared and safe. We have 23
regional coordinators to organize this
training program throughout the country,”
she said.
According to MEP data, some 3,000 workers
are employed at school cafeterias in Costa
Rica.
Additionally, the MEP is planning to invest
some 2 billion colones ($3.63 million) to
improve the current conditions of school
cafeterias, according to needs reports
presented by the schools regarding
infrastructure and basic kitchen equipment.
These resources are part of the signature
program “Education as a right” that MEP has
been developing to guarantee universal
access to pre-school, elementary and
secondary education — through actions that
would compensate social, economic, ethnic,
cultural, gender and other types of
inequalities that hinder equal access to
opportunities provided by the country’s
educational system.
Castillo added that, in assigning resources,
the MEP will give priority to those
institutions that have not yet received
allocations from the signature program in
the past two years, as well as school
located in poor areas of the country. “We
are encouraging schools to send their
requests taking into consideration their
real needs, as this year we want to improve
our services and reach a larger student
population,” she said.
For the 2009 school year, MEP’s school
cafeteria budget is 33 billion colones ($6
million), compared to 25 billion colones
last year.
|
|
|
|
|
