Olena Zelenska told about the construction of the country's second kitchen factory and emphasized that "the kitchen will produce not only lunches but also positive changes".
The First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, announced the launch of a project for the construction of the country’s second kitchen factory within the school nutrition reform, as reported by the Office of the President of Ukraine.
The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has agreed to finance the construction of a second kitchen factory in Ukraine. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation donated $10 million for the kitchen factory in Bucha and allocated over $12 million to support another such facility. Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Foundation has provided more than $500 million, including $255 million to support Ukraine’s food security and strengthen the country’s ability to harvest and export food.
“This is another powerful step in school nutrition reform to provide children with quality and healthy food, which is especially needed under the wartime stress. This is also an important boost for communities, as it means jobs and economic revitalization where it is needed. It will help families, as children will not only receive quality lunches, but also learn a healthy approach to nutrition. And this is an encouraging prospect for our entire society: if healthy eating habits are learned from childhood, they will definitely continue into adulthood, into millions of lives. So, it turns out that the kitchen will produce not only lunches, but also changes for the better,” the First Lady emphasized.
The project will be implemented in Lozova, Kharkiv region. The kitchen factory is expected to provide ready-to-eat lunches to the educational institutions of Lozova and Blyzniuky communities, where nearly 14,000 schoolchildren study.
“Thanks to the support of Olena Zelenska and our American friend Howard Buffett, we have done a tremendous amount of ‘homework’ that has continued systematically throughout the year. Together with the regional council, we have established a utility company that centralizes organizational processes. We are working on arranging shelters, repairing canteens and training staff, as well as providing transportation for students. But the most important thing is yet to come. We are convinced that in a year’s time our children will be studying in a safe educational environment and will be provided with high-quality healthy meals,” said Oleh Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration.
It is reported that the first kitchen factory was opened in Bucha, Kyiv region, in December 2023. It provides meals for students and preschoolers of 30 educational institutions in three surrounding communities – Buchanska, Nemishaivska, and Borodyanska. The kitchen factory model is one of three new technological models of catering for children developed and approved as part of the school nutrition reform in 2020-2022. Its peculiarity is not only in scale, but also in ensuring compliance with high quality standards and HACCP requirements, which guarantees reliability and safety.
As reminded in the Office of the President of Ukraine, the kitchen factory is a separate enterprise where meals are prepared, rapidly chilled (to a temperature of +3° C), and then delivered in a cooled state to educational institutions and health and recreation facilities. Its production capacity allows for the preparation of up to 10,000 portions of food per day, providing quality meals to 30-40 educational institutions. With this system, children in both large cities and small villages will receive equally healthy and nutritious meals.