The health of more than 2 million students could be threatened by poorly managed student lunch programs, a lawmaker claimed yesterday.
"Fifty-four percent of schools do not have any nutritionist in service," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (
"Not only is it against the law, it also puts the health of over 2 million children at risk," he said.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES
Article 23 of the School Health Act (
"It's astonishing to see that there is only one nutritionist serving the whole of Kaohsiung County," Chou said. "And there is not one in Tainan County."
Ministry of Education statistics showed that, by law, 390 nutritionist should have been in service by the end of last year.
At last count, there were only 117.
Sixteen lunch-related incidents were recorded last year, involving food poisoning, unusual amounts of bacteria in food and foreign objects in lunch boxes, among others.
Nutritionists inspected two student lunch boxes randomly selected from Taipei City schools.
Both samples failed the evaluation due to nutritional imbalance.
Insufficient budget was the main reason for the shortage in nutritionists, Lu Sheng-yuan (
"But starting in September, the ministry will provide funds for local governments to hire nutritionists," he said.
"The vacancies will be filled and within five years we will have met the legal requirements," he said.
By September, all the counties will have at least one nutritionist to serve local schools, Lu said.
The ministry also planned to assign nutritionists to county governments to oversee lunch providers from outside of school, Lu added.
More than 20 percent of all elementary and junior-high schools outsource their lunch programs, affecting 36 percent of students, while the remainder have their own kitchens, the ministry said.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS