School cafeterias in danger: families denounce that the Education Department wants to eliminate the direct management of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs).
After decades of integrating education and family involvement, a dozen schools and 1,500 students could lose a model that parents consider a benchmark in quality and pedagogy, while the sector becomes concentrated in the hands of large companies.
PalmParents' associations have expressed their concern following the possible disappearance of the school cafeteria model managed by Parents' Associations (AFAs) in the Balearic Islands, a system currently active in about ten schools serving approximately 1,500 students and now threatened by the reform of the Decree. In a statement released this Monday, the organizations emphasize that "no one questions that the school cafeteria is, or should be, another educational space within the school. A space where education, participation, health, coexistence, sustainability... are present, or where they should be." It is precisely this pedagogical integration that, according to the families, is at stake if the current management model changes. Among the affected schools are CEIP Rafal Vell (Palma), whose cafeteria has been managed by families since 1980; and CEIP Es Pont (Palma), since 1996. CEIP Sa Indioteria (Palma), since 2006. Other affected schools are located in Llucmajor, Santa María, Alaró, Campanet, Inca, Colonia de Sant Pere, and Sant Joan.
The demands of families coincide with data demonstrating a strong corporate concentration in the management of school cafeterias in the Balearic Islands. Three large companies—Restaurante Can Arabí, Catering S'Olivera, and Comensales Comedores Escolares—manage more than half of the 212 public schools with cafeteria services, a situation that makes it difficult for small, family-run projects to survive. The figures indicate that almost 70% of cafeterias rely on externally prepared meals delivered to the schools, while only a third of schools have their own kitchens where food is cooked directly for the students. This "oligopoly" in the school food sector has been criticized by families and professionals because it "breaks the direct relationship between the cook and the school, and participation in the cafeteria's educational activities is reduced or eliminated." AFA: Educational and participatory management in danger
According to the families' statement, the Regional Ministry of Education "wants to eliminate, using questionable legal arguments, the possibility of these agreements with Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) in the new decree on school cafeterias currently being processed." The associations criticize that "the current wording is insufficient and ambiguous, since it does not guarantee the continuity of this model, although it does not eliminate it directly, as the first draft did." FAPA Mallorca, with the support of the Feeding the Future Network, asserts that it has defended the agreements with "legal and pedagogical" arguments and that it has contacted the national confederation CEAPA and other autonomous communities where this model of agreements is still in place, such as Catalonia, Galicia, Aragon, and Navarre. The families insist that the management of the cafeteria by the PTA, "shared with the teaching staff, guarantees that lunchtime is integrated into the school's educational project." They affirm that "the involvement of families in school life is not a secondary objective, but rather one of the ways in which shared school-family education is realized."
A project that adds up
- Qualitative criteria in the hiring and management of the service, with families who ensure the quality of the food and the attention of the staff.
- Non-profit economic management, focused on improvement and quality.
- Direct relationship and involvement of families in organizational and pedagogical decisions.
- Educational consideration of mealtimes and coordination with the teaching team.
The associations consider it paradoxical to have to "fight to survive against the political will to prevent this option, when this model should be encouraged." They insist that what is at stake is "the survival of educational practices that have been demonstrating their quality for nearly 40 years" and point out that the cafeterias managed by the Parents' Associations "function well." Finally, they demand that the Ministry of Education "guarantee that families, through the Parents' Associations, can manage their children's cafeterias together with the entire educational community."