Viena Capellanes, one of the three companies hired by the Community of Madrid to distribute menus to children from low-income families, has accepted the donation of Bananas from the Canary Islands neglected in mid-March by the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The Community of Madrid contacted the Canarian producers on March 18 with the two fast food companies already contracted, Telepizza and Rodilla. The two declined the offer of the free bananas because they did not assume the cost of transporting the fruits, which were in Mercamadrid. A week later, when Viena Chaplains joined the scheme, the Ayuso government did not inform him of the possibility of including the bananas for free.
Viena Chaplains and Canarian producers contacted this Wednesday after reading a report from EL PAÍS reporting the missed opportunity to better feed vulnerable children during confinement. Bananas from the Canary Islands had offered the Community of Madrid 12,000 bananas free three days a week.
The controversy over the low quality of school menus in Madrid broke out shortly after the schools closed due to the pandemic. The Community of Madrid urgently hired fast food companies to feed the children of families who receive the Minimum Insertion Income and therefore usually have a dining scholarship. Madrid has been criticized by nutrition experts because, unlike other communities, it chose to hire fast food companies.
Viena Capellanes is a Madrid gourmet food company with the most nutritious menu of the three contracted, according to the experts consulted. It serves kids hake, lentils or green beans, and already includes a piece of own fruit two days a week. This company delivers about 600 menus a day, while Telepizza serves 3,000 and does not include pieces of fruit. Knee also distributes about 600 menus.
“The more fruit these kids have the better. If they have two pieces in the same day, they will be able to keep them for a snack or dinner ”, the General Director of Vienna Chaplains, Antonio Lence, tells EL PAÍS.
Plátano de Canarias will transport its fruits to the Alcorcón factory in Viena Capellanes, so that the Madrid company can then distribute them in its establishments or on the six routes that its transporters travel through the region daily, according to sources from both parties.
Ayuso assured this Wednesday that his school menus carry fruit, but only 14% of these include it. The company with the most distribution points, Telepizza, does not have any fruit on its menus.
The Community of Madrid will maintain the service until the end of the course: it pays five euros for the distributed menu of Telepizza and Knee, and 7.30 for each one of Vienna Chaplains. In some City Councils such as those of Leganés, Getafe, Móstoles, Rivas or Loeches, it was decided to replace the menus of the school canteen with healthy proposals. In Alcalá, for a money voucher for families.
Ayuso’s pizzas and a few extra kilos
The Community of Madrid ignored other healthier alternatives for schoolchildren of families receiving the Minimum Insertion Income and minors are already beginning to suffer the consequences
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