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Officials sacked over pupils' bread and milk lunch

2012-11-28 13:12 Shanghai Daily     Web Editor: Wang YuXia comment

Five education officials have been sacked after primary school pupils in a remote mountainous county in central China were found to be getting only a small bun and carton of milk for lunch.

The miserly meal cost no more than 2 yuan (about 32 US cents), 1 yuan less than the national allowance.

Suode Primary School, in Hunan Province's Fenghuang County, is one of the beneficiaries of a charity project aimed at improving the diet of primary and middle school students in remote areas.

The "Free Lunch for Children" project was initiated by Deng Fei, a Phoenix Weekly reporter, in September 2011 and is now operated by the China Social Welfare Foundation.

The State Council announced its own rural nutrition program on October 2011, earmarking 16 billion yuan a year to feed 26 million students in 680 impoverished counties and cities, each of whom would get a free lunch worth 3 yuan every school day.

However, the more than 100 children at Suode Primary School were given just a small bun and milk, a volunteer teacher identified as Diaoya disclosed on her Weibo microblog.

"Is the combo worth three yuan? We all remain doubtful," she said. The school has three teachers and three volunteers.

Diaoya said the students had also been left hungry for two days when meals hadn't arrived, and the school had handed out expired milk on one occasion.

The news triggered a public outcry with many people suspecting that local officials might be in collusion with the company supplying the food, with funds being diverted from the free lunch program.

"It is not that bad if children indeed really get a two-yuan meal. After all, some people want to gain a fortune," Deng said, implying that the actual situation could be worse, People's Daily reported.

Deng said he had suggested building a school canteen, but local officials refused. "It is so strange," he said. "We would like to use public donations to cover all of the expenses, but this was rejected."

Wu Yuangui, newly-appointed director of the Fenghuang Education Bureau, announced that the headmaster, two deputy heads and two county education officials had been fired and admitted that there had been "management loopholes."

But he dismissed allegations of corruption.

A school volunteer said they had received donations from the public of up to 20,000 yuan in the days after the news broke and there were plans to recruit a chef to cook for the children for the rest of the semester.

It is estimated that more than half the schools qualifying for the free lunch program employ cooks while 35 percent give the job to outside caterers and 12 percent distribute the allowances to parents.

In June, China published regulations regarding the implementation of the program, pledging safe and nutritious lunches, following public concern after several food poisoning cases, Xinhua news agency reported.

In Jiangsu Province, about 40 middle school students developed food poisoning symptoms after eating a free lunch at their school's canteen in April.

Yunnan Province has also reported four food poisoning incidents in schools since March.

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