Discount proposal for school canteens from the New Party

New Party Ankara MP Umut Akdoğan has proposed a 50 percent discount on non-packaged food items in school canteens to ensure children do not go hungry, with the remaining cost to be subsidized by the state.

Akdoğan stated that the proposal could be implemented in the second term of the academic year, adding, "Let our children be well-fed."

New Party Ankara MP Umut Akdoğan proposed a 50 percent discount on non-packaged food items in school canteens to ensure children do not go hungry, with the remaining cost to be subsidized by the state. In a post on his social media account, Akdoğan stated the following:

"Our primary priority is to ensure our children do not go hungry at school. My proposal for this is as follows: Apply a 50 percent discount on all canteen items, excluding packaged products, including items like ayran and milk. Let the state subsidize and cover the remainder of this discount.

This way, our canteen operators will not be disadvantaged, they can make more sales, and our children can benefit more from food products. I will be following this issue closely from the moment the Turkish Grand National Assembly opens on October 1.

After that, as you know, budget negotiations will begin. We can work on this with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. The burden of this on our budget is 55 billion. If we were to provide meals in schools, it would be 235 billion. It is clear that the current government cannot manage this.

Since they cannot manage to provide meals in schools every day, for every meal, then the thing to do is a temporary stopgap measure. If we work on this, we can implement it in the second term. That is, until we can provide a meal to our children every day, until those days come, this will be a remedy for our children's troubles.

We do not want to see children with dimmed eyes in schools. At the very least, they should be able to eat a sandwich or drink an ayran. If you cannot find the resources for this, let us start a campaign. Let us carry this out within the framework of a campaign so that our children are well-fed, let us find the money, and let us implement this temporary method until we can provide a full meal."

News Source: 12punto