Delicious Lunch at School

Interviews and photos: Tran Thi Ha, Nguyen Van Son – Tram Tau ADP staff
Written by Nguyen Kim Ngan – Communications
 
“I like to eat rice with bean at class. When my classmates and I eat together, we often compete who can eat the most and who can finish lunch the earliest,” says Luong Van Duy Hung, a boy of Thai ethnicity.

Giang A Nha, a H’mong ethnic minority girl, shares, ‘“I enjoy eating at school because the food is more delicious. I have meat, eggs, vegetables and fish. Egg is my favourite food.”

Both Hung and Nha are five. They have gone to two different kindergartens in Tram Tau, 240km north from Hanoi, since they were two. The two children stay at school from morning till afternoon.

Every lunch, the two children sit in line with their friends and each of them has a big bowl and a spoon. Their teachers will deliver warm rice, soup and a main dish for them. The food is changed daily based on a weekly menu of their kindergarten.

Five years ago, the picture was dream for any pupil and teacher in Tram Tau, which is the poorest district in the northern Yen Bai province and one of 11 poorest districts in Vietnam.

Ms Nguyen Thi Thoan, 29, has worked at a main branch of Hoa Hong kindergarten in Tang Ghenh village since 2005. She remembered that at first, children returned home for lunch and came back school in the afternoon. A year later, many students started bringing their lunch to class.

“Their main food was bamboo shot with red chili and cabbage. Some children’s lips were pale of chili because they ate the shots for a whole week. If the children came back home, they would have the same food and cold rice for lunch,” Thoan recalls.

“Local people of H’mong ethnicity think either vegetables or meat is enough for their children’s meal at class. Having meals like that can’t provide enough nutrition for children because rice is cold and food isn’t plentiful and nutritious,” she adds.

Children still have bamboo shot with red chili and cabbage for lunch at other kindergartens which haven’t had kitchens.

At the time, Ms Thoan and her colleagues understood what their children should eat. “We, however, didn’t know how to balance proportion of each ingredient in their meal. We couldn’t practice the cooking because the school hadn’t had a kindergarten,” she shares.

More than 70 per cent of the population in Tram Tau struggled with poverty, according to official statistics released in 2008. Up to 36 per cent of local children under five suffered from malnutrition while the rate was reported higher in some remote communities.  

The malnutrition rate was high because local people didn’t have knowledge of nutrition, disease prevention for their children and other issues of childcare in Tram Tau. Mothers and other caregivers kept their out-of-date thinking and practised backward habits when taking care of their children.

Ms Ha Thi Nhinh, who is a Thai ethnic mother and has a two-year-old child, shares, “I sometimes cooked porridge with pig bones, a little of pork and some salt for my child but I didn’t cook vegetables for her. She ate very little.”

The malnutrition rate among children under five has fallen to 32 per cent in Tram Tau, according to a survey conducted last year by World Vision. Hoa Hong kindergarten, where Ms Thoan is working, reported 43 out of the total 345 pupils (or 12.5 per cent) were malnourished in 2012. 

The reduction is attributed to a number of nutrition activities that World Vision has implemented in both local kindergartens and local communities since 2008. 

“World Vision has trained kindergarten teachers on nutrition. They were taught to calculate ration per child, to set up a menu, to cook, select and to keep food in good conditions,” says Ms Tran Thi Ha, who is in charge of implementing the activities.

“We also supported some main branches of local kindergartens to build new kitchen or to buy cooking utensils, and plan vegetable at gardens to diversify food for their pupils,” Ha adds.

Apart from the government’s assistance, World Vision has paid a part of pupils’ meal costs at five main branches. The financial support has been reduced year by year while parents are asked to pay more their children’s lunch beside their current contribution in kind such as rice and wood.

At present, World Vision pays VND1,000 (5 US cents) for daily lunch of each pupil at the main branch in Tang Ghenh village, a decrease from VND6,000 (30 US cents) in 2008.

Parents now spend more money on their children’s lunch at school. Though the additional payment isn’t low for them, who live merely on agriculture at mountainous areas, they are happy when their children enjoy warm rice and food at school.

Ms Cho Thi My whose daughter goes to the branch in Tang Ghenh village says, “Her school lunch costs me but my family will try to cover it. The meal at school is more adequate than at home.”

“It’s good that my child stays at school for a whole day. My husband and I don’t need to pick her up from school at noon,” adds the 46-year-old woman of Mong ethnicity.

Another parent, Mr Lo Van Chiem, a Thai ethnicity, shares the same thought. “I pay VND7,000 (35 US cents) a day for my child’s lunch, up from VND4,000 (20 US cents) some years ago. It would be more difficult for us if my son didn’t have lunch at school. We have nothing available, except dried fish, and don’t have enough time to prepare lunch for him at home,” the 27-year-old man says.

“We think about assisting village-based kindergartens to cook lunch for their pupils in the coming time,” says Ms Ha, World Vision’s staff. “World Vision plans to implement health projects to tackle with nutrition issues at school and at community in the next five year.”


Mothers and caregivers practise to cook meals for their children at a nutrition club in Tram Tau.

Together with activities at school, World Vision started forming nutrition clubs in October 2012 to promote a sustainable life span of nutrition activities. To date, six clubs have operated in five villages.

“Our clubs’ members have been trained on childcare at our bi-monthly meetings. They have learnt about exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months, necessary food groups for children and practised to cook,” says Ms Ha Thi Cuom, who is in charge of the club.

The 25-year-old woman shared a story about one member of her club. “She didn’t know to cook for her son before joining the club. She fed her son with porridge with salt and sometimes with pork. She didn’t know how to cook fish and never cooked vegetables for her son,” Cuom recalls.

“The mother now can cook crabs and eels if she catches them on the field. She also cooks eggs, pork or beef for her son,” the woman of Thai ethnicity adds.