State Budget Dining Rooms will supply food to 55 schools with extended day program

State Budget Dining Rooms will supply food to 55 schools with extended day program
Santo Domingo, September 10, 2013

Starting next week, the State Budget Dining Rooms will supply food to students on the extended day program in 55 schools that are not yet able to prepare lunch, thanks to an interagency agreement with the National Student Welfare Directorate.

The announcement was made last Tuesday by the State Budget Dining Rooms Manager, Mr. Ramón –Monchy- Rodríguez, during a preparatory meeting with the Director of Student Welfare, Mr. René Jáquez, at the charitable organization’s headquarters.
Monchy Rodríguez indicated that the State Budget Dining Rooms are in a position to immediately supply the centers that Student Welfare has already identified, and that they others could gradually be supplied, as necessary.

>“Our capacity is based on 34 producing dining rooms out of the 36 we have across the country, plus the 33 mobile kitchens we also have and that are available to prepare food. This means that we do have the installed capacity,” the officer announced.

In that regard, Monchy Rodríguez explained that both institutions are negotiating the menu for each center, age group, and respecting the parameters established by Student Welfare, through their respective Nutrition Departments.

The Manager of the State Budget Dining Rooms said that with this agreement both institutions are pursuing a common goal, to strengthen the national education system, to educate and adequately feed “our youth.”
In turn, Jáquez said that 55 schools have been identified to receive food from the State Budget Dining Rooms, and that the two institutions have already agreed on the terms of the agreement to be signed in the coming days.
“We are pursuing an agreement on a menu to guarantee all the essential nutrients for children between the ages of 5 and 14, the age group with the vast majority of children to be included in the extended day program,” Jáquez said.

Meanwhile, the President of the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP – Asociación Dominicana de Profesores), Eduardo Hidalgo, who also participated in the meeting, expressed his support for the State Budget Dining Rooms guaranteeing the food to the students in the extended day program.

Also in attendance at the preparatory meeting were: Sergio Pantalón and Rosana M. Lizardo, Directors of Legal and Nutrition in Education, respectively; and Fernanda Frías Peralta, in charge of Legal Affairs at the State Budget Dining Rooms, among others.