The director of the ICCA, Luis Arráez Guadalupe, and the Minister of Education of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Ascensión Toledo Hernández, convened a meeting last Thursday in which it was agreed to incorporate nine centers of the Rural Schools Collective (CER) of Lanzarote and the CEIP La Destila to the Ecocomedores de Canarias program.
The island director of Education, Carmen Pellón, also participated in the meeting; the coordinator of the Vice-Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands, Paz Marrero; the coordinator of the Ecocomedores Program and technician of the ICCA, Margarita Hernández; the coordinator of the Rural Schools Collective (CER) of Lanzarote, Sebastián Luján; the technicians of the Agriculture service of the Cabildo, Ana Garrido, and
of the Biosphere Reserve, Ana Carrasco and Natalia Díaz; the directors of the CEIP La Destila and María Auxiliadora; the coordinator of the catering company Albi and representatives of the SAT El Jable.
After a brief presentation by the director of the ICCA in which he outlined the objectives and operation of the Ecocomedores program, which is led by the Canarian Institute of Agri-Food Quality (ICCA) and is based on the incorporation of organic, fresh, local and seasonal products in the dining rooms of educational centers, the Minister of Education of the Cabildo presented the initiative proposed by the coordinator of the CER Lanzarote, so that the company that will manage the new dining service of the CEIP La Destila will also be responsible for preparing the menus in the nine rural schools that join this project.
In this sense, the Cabildo has assumed the acquisition of supplies and the necessary conditioning works so that the Rural Schools can attend to the dining service while the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands will assume the transfer of the menus prepared in the 'mother kitchen' of the CEIP La Destila to these nine centers, where 159 students will benefit from a service to which in the near future two other educational centers could be added, which have already requested to join the initiative.
Later, at the Farm of the island corporation, the director of the ICCA explained to the eco-farmers linked to Ecocomedores interested in being part of it, the result of the morning meeting in the island corporation. The people participating in this meeting positively valued the incorporation of the Rural Schools Collective to the program, while raising different proposals to continue promoting the production and consumption of ecolocal products on the island.