Led by Strength2Food partner EUTA, during October 2018, children in 32 Serbian primary schools and their parents completed questionnaires on food preferences and attitudes towards food. Just over 4,000 children and over 3,000 parents completed questionnaires. Schools taking part in the project are now receiving feedback on the results of their children’s food preferences. In addition to an overall report on findings from the children’s food preference questionnaire, reports for individual schools are also being prepared. The overall report, together Read more

Three representatives of the BARILLA team, Roberto Bassi (chef) and Ilaria Rossi from Barilla Academia and Beatrice Biassini from Madegus, were in Serbia from 3rd to 5th December to give demonstrations of cooking and advice on meal nutrition to cooks from schools taking part in the Strength2Food project. Two primary schools were selected for the demonstrations: "Kosta Trifković" in Novi Sad and "Dositej Obradović" in Belgrade, chosen because of the availability of suitable facilities for giving demonstrations and the timing Read more

Another date, another place, another Hybrid Forum, and another theme Another date, this time Tuesday, 4th June, and another place, this time Belgrade benefited from another Strength2Food Hybrid Forum in Serbia, and where better to hold it than in one of our schools taking part in the WP9 school meals pilot scheme. Thanks to the school’s director, Jole Bulatović, we had the school’s special events room available from 15:30 until 20:00 last Tuesday. So, while setting up the proceedings we Read more

After extensive collection of background information on Serbian primary schools and well over 80 school visits since the start of Strength2Food, an initial list of 30 schools has been selected and formally notified by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development on 24th January, 2018. These schools represent the four regions of Serbia selected for study: Belgrade city, Novi Sad, a large area around Mionica - Bajina Basta - Loznica, and Arile - Ivanjica. Each school has been asked Read more

That is how one of our key speakers got to Petnica Science Centre for our first Strength2Food hybrid forum on Monday, 27th November to discuss the topic "How to improve the quality of children's meals in primary schools". The event was held in Serbia's unique Science Centre, an independently-funded organisation providing research opportunities for primary and secondary school children from both Serbia and the rest of Europe, 90 km south-west of Belgrade near the town of Valjevo. That meant a Read more

Two representatives from Academia Barilla, Roberto Bassi and Ilaria Rossi, part of the Strength2Food partner BARILLA, spent 20-22nd November in Serbia visiting several primary schools taking part in the school meals pilot scheme of WP9.1. In total, nine schools were visited in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Mionica, a rural town south of Belgrade. The objectives of the visit were to see kitchen facilities and equipment, discuss menus with school cooks and challenges currently faced with school meal provision. Every school Read more

This time it was TV Pink to interview BSN's Ratko Bojović for the 6 am Daybreak programmebroadcast on 1st November. Although the stimulus for the interview was the food poisoning outbreak in several Belgrade schools reported in October, this time word had evidently got around that there is a major project in Serbia that is doing something to improve school meals. Thus, the focus of the interview was mainly to find out what Strength2Food is doing in Serbia and how Read more

The recently-reported food poisoning scare in Belgrade primary schools (see news item of 6th October) led to another interview on Serbian television; this time on Jutarnji Program of RTS 1 (the equivalent of BBC's Breakfast TV), broadcast live on Friday, 13th October. Gordana Kosanović, representing the Ministry of Education and Science (MPNTR), and Steve Quarrie, representing BSN (EUTA), presented the Ministry's new initiative to identify how the quality of meals for primary schoolchildren in Serbia can be improved, and the Read more

Steve Quarrie, representing colleagues from BSN (EUTA) and MPNTR, presented the Strength2Food project and aspects of its activities in Serbia in the session on Rural Development and Agro-economy of Agrosym 2017. The talk focused on the relationship between schools preparing their own meals, in our four target areas of Belgrade, Novi Sad, around Valjevo and around Arilje, and their suppliers - typically distributors collecting foodstuffs from a wide range of sources, both within Serbia and from abroad. Some of our Read more