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 had a few curious children milling around, wondering what all the drinks were for! Another theme, this time for the [...]

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 to provide a coordinator for the project, with whom Strength2Food researchers will work closely, and schools have been informed of [...]

This is how one of our keynote speakers arrived at the Petnica Research Station for our first Strength2Food Hybrid Forum on Monday, November 27, to participate in a discussion on "How to improve the quality of children's meals in primary schools". This event was held in a unique scientific center in Serbia, an independent and independent institution that provides an opportunity for primary and secondary school students from Serbia, as well as the rest of Europe, to engage in research work. Petnica is located about 90 km southwest of Belgrade, near the town of Valjevo, which meant that many of [...]

Two representatives of Barilla Academy (part of BARILLA's Strength2Food partner), Roberto Bassi and Ilaria Rossi, visited elementary schools in Serbia from November 20 to 22 as part of a pilot project related to school meals. In total, nine schools were visited in the territory of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Mionica, a small town south of Belgrade. The goals of the visit were a tour of kitchens and kitchen equipment and a discussion with school cooks about menus and the challenges they face when preparing food. All schools highlighted the problem related to the Law on Public Procurement and the difficulties [...]

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 it aims to help improve meals in Serbia's primary schools. Ratko was able to describe howthe teams in Serbia aim [...]

Due to the recent case of food poisoning in Belgrade elementary schools, we had the opportunity to be a guest on Serbian national television, this time on RTS 1's morning program, in a show that was broadcast on Friday, October 13. Colleague Gordana Kosanović from the Ministry of Education (MPNTR) and our head of education and training Steve Quarrie presented the new initiative of the Minister of Education on improving the quality of nutrition in primary schools and the progress achieved so far on the Strength2Food project in data collection and the selection of schools for the pilot project . [...]

Steve Quarrie presented the Strength2Food project and various aspects of activities in Serbia in the session Rural development and agro-economy at Agrosym 2017 in front of the team of EUTA and the Ministry of Education (MPNTR). The presentation and later discussion focused on the connection between schools that prepare food in their kitchens, namely in 4 regions: Belgrade, Novi Sad, the wider area of Valjevo and Arilje; and suppliers who supply schools with food products produced in Serbia, but also imported from abroad. Some of the data collected so far on the S2F project were presented, which show that, for [...]

Four primary schools in Belgrade have just suffered from an outbreak of food poisoning from a meal provided by a catering company, with 135 children suffering from severe stomach problems and seven briefly hospitalised (Tuesday, 3rd October). This has raised the issue of schools providing their own meals to ensure that health and safety standards are not compromised by awarding tenders to the caterer offering the cheapest meals, whatever the quality. Fortuitously for Strength2Food, this outbreak occurred the day that BSN staff Steve Quarrie and Ratko Bojovic were at a meeting in Serbia's state television organisation (RTS) discussing how RTS [...]

During a recent visit to the village school Prota Mateja Nenadović in Brankovina near Valjevo, the school principal Milica Ostojić surprised us with the news that she arranged a television interview for us (Ratko Bojović and Steve Quarrie, BSN / EUTA) on local television, Vujić TV, Valjevo. VTV is available on cable television in Serbia, and is especially watched in the wider area of ​​Valjevo. The interview will be broadcast on the evening of June 29 and will be available soon on YouTube. Milica is one of the most enterprising principals of primary schools in Serbia with many years of [...]