School canteens are spaces for promoting food sovereignty. It brings together justice, educational resources, the circular economy, waste management and the defence of good practices; an excellent tool to strengthen change in the social model.

Our concern for the dining model is not this morning. Seeing that the current model was exhausted, two years ago we set up in the union a working group from Dining Room to Dining. At the same time, the case of the fraud of catering companies came to light; we were not surprised, we knew that they were doing business for the children of schools and with the complicity of the public administration.

The need for change in the dining room model was and is evident. A change that will take place through alliances. Students, teachers, families, staff of canteens, fishermen and baserritarras, administration... It must be the wager of an entire community. And for that purpose, we have also held some internal days to broaden our vision and complete the diagnosis. We have worked together with students, teachers, fathers and mothers, fishermen, baserritars and canteens workers and have worked on a comprehensive proposal from the conciliation of the various contributions. It is based on three pillars:

– The new model should be based on food sovereignty, deciding which foods and how to produce them. Our choice is local and seasonal agro-ecological foods. We must commit ourselves to the working and living conditions of the baserritars and fishermen, and the primary sector must be a source of quality employment.

– It must be an educational model, for the students the dining room must be a friendly space, with nutrition, coexistence, livestock, marine species, regional economy... The learning space should be included in the curriculum of the center.

– The working conditions of the staff of the school canteens should be of quality, compared to the current ones.

One or the other: either we have sovereignty over the dining model, or the neoliberal model will continue to use the food system, including that of school canteens, to do business. The multinationals defend the complicity of governments, not olvidemos.El
the Basque Government also backs us in this area. This is a unilateral and irresponsible decision that opens the door wide to the elimination and deregulation of equal opportunities. If they impose this position, there will be no control whatsoever and insecurity will be total. The Basque Government is relinquishing the responsibilities of its staff.

From LAB we demand a quality public model, and in this way we propose concrete measures: to put kitchens in all schools, to have all the staff for the staff of the Department of Education, to develop a plan to achieve it, for educators and educators; to promote a process of subrogation that takes all the guarantees.

The debate is therefore not over. We continue to fight for school canteens to be a space and a tool for change.

Aitziber Uriarte.
Urtzi Ostolozaga.
Members of the LAB trade union.