Deputies from Yabloko proposed to provide schoolchildren who have the right to free school meals with food sets during quarantine
Press Release, 26.03.2020
Yabloko deputies in the parliaments of Karelia, Pskov, St. Petersburg, and also in the Duma of Veliky Novgorod appealed to regional governments with a proposal to provide school children who have the right to free school meals with food packages while schools are on quarantine.
Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia Emilia Slabunova, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Boris Vishnevsky, deputies of the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies Lev Shlosberg and Arthur Gaiduk, deputy of the Duma of Veliky Novgorod Anna Cherepanova addressed the officials of their regions with the such requests.
Emilia Slabunova, member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, MP of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia and Honored Teacher of Russia, was the first to set forth this initiative.
She raised this issue at an extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Health and Social Protection of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia on March 25.
“Educational organisations have closed for a long period, and it is not known when they will open. Many children from low-income families got meals at school at the expense of budgetary funds. Now they are all at home. Children want even more food when they are constantly at home,” Emilia Slabunova said.
On March 26, it was announced that the government of Karelia began to resolve the issue of provision of food packages to children; currently, the officials of the Republic are coordinating the list of products with Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare).
It should be noted that children from low-income families get free school meals or meals at a reduced-price as a measure of social support in most Russian regions. Children with disabilities, children of single mothers, orphans (left without parental care), children who, for whatever reason, are in a difficult situation also enjoy this right.
Vacations are announced in all Russian schools from March 23 to April 12 in connection with the spread of COVID-19.
Posted: March 27th, 2020 under Education and Science, Healthcare, Social Policies.