The parents of students of at least three schools in Malaga city and Rincón de la Victoria are holding a "canteen strike" on Friday over ... the quality and quantity of food their children eat at shool at lunchtime.
The protest, which will take the form of a picnic, with parents taking their children out at lunchtime, for now involves the Parque Clavero, Almudena Grandes and Gregorio Marañón primary schools.
With packed sandwiches, the families will gather in front of the school gates at 2pm. Many children and parents consider the food in schools to be of poor quality and insufficient in quantity.
At the centre of the scandal is Mediterránea de Catering: the catering company that has already been subject to disciplinary proceedings in Cordoba and Granada following two incidents. Families are now going further and want their protests to prompt the Andalusian regional government to take action on the matter.
In the case of CEIP Parque Clavero, the aim is also to start using the school's own kitchen so that meals can be prepared there on a daily basis. It so happens that the school was originally built with its own kitchen, but it was never actually used because the regional government opted for a system where meals are prepared in industrial kitchens and distributed to various schools.
Complaints about the management of school meals have marked the start of the new school year in Andalucía. The protests on Friday come just two days after news emerged of the disciplinary proceedings the regional government had initiated against Mediterránea de Catering in Cordoba over the now infamous "pisto without pisto" incident.
On Thursday, the regional minister of education addressed the Andalusian regional parliament, stating that school menus are "safe, healthy and nutritious" and that the incidents that have occurred are "isolated cases".
