Parents accuse kindergarten of feeding children moldy rice and fish heads

The People's Committee of Phu My town (Ba Ria - Vung Tau) has just organized a meeting between teachers of Phu My kindergarten and representatives of parents to clarify information about children having to eat moldy rice and fish heads in their meals.

According to the parents' feedback, at noon on October 9, they went to Phu My kindergarten and witnessed the children's meals not meeting quality standards with green rice that looked moldy and red tilapia in tomato sauce with only fish heads, and cabbage soup cooked with meat but all the meat was fatty.

At this time, the school is receiving an inspection delegation from Phu My town to clarify the complaint against the principal of Phu My town kindergarten by 13 teachers.

The parents brought rice pots, braised fish pots and soup into the inspection team's working room to report the incident. Witnessing the incident, the inspection team's staff took note of the parents' opinions, reported the incident to the town leaders and invited the health department to come and take rice samples for testing.

This morning, the school's catering teachers took a day off and did not cook for the children. The education department notified parents to come and take their children home.

However, after a temple cooked rice for the children, the education department also asked the health center to come and check to ensure food safety.

Parents said they paid 25,000 VND/day and a service fee of 5,000 VND/day for each child to eat at school, but the food rations were not guaranteed. Parents have also reported this to the leaders of Phu My town kindergarten many times, but the situation has not improved.

“My child came home from daycare many times crying and refusing to go to school. The reason is that the food at school is very difficult to eat. I went there and saw that the food was not safe,” said Nguyen Ngoc Quynh Huong, adding that yesterday afternoon, she and some parents went into the kitchen to check and saw green mold on the rice.

"If we feed children such foods, how can we ensure their health?" - Ms. Quynh Huong asked.

Ms. Tran Thi Thu said that this was not the first time something like this had happened. Previously, she had witnessed children using milk of unknown origin, then the school changed the milk, or vermicelli used as food for children also became moldy...

“We have reported this to the school leaders many times but it has not worked. We do not accept children eating unsafe food every day,” Ms. Thu said indignantly.

Parents also said that after complaining about the moldy rice, school leaders sent a truck to take the rice away, but they did not agree.

During the meeting, the teacher of Phu My kindergarten admitted that the rice was moldy and the braised fish dish had many heads. The teacher said the moldy rice was due to spoiled rice, and although he had reported it to the school leadership last week, he did not understand why it had not been replaced.

The representative of Phu My Kindergarten confirmed that they knew about the rice not being white, but because the school was closed for the last 2 days of the week, they could not exchange the rice. On Monday, the rice supplier was busy and could not come.

The school confirmed that the fish had a complete body, head and tail, and that there was no such thing as giving children only the head.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tham - Chairman of Phu My Town People's Committee said that he will conduct a comprehensive inspection of the contents that parents and teachers have reflected and consider specific contents with an objective and impartial spirit.

According to Mr. Tham, the school will sign a contract with a company specializing in providing food to some kindergartens in the area to cook for the children, but it cannot be done tomorrow.

The parents agreed to let the teacher cook lunch tomorrow, but will send someone to supervise.

Recently, 13 teachers of Phu My Kindergarten filed a complaint against Principal Nguyen Thi Tham Liem for irregularities in revenue and expenditure./.