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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]