The wife of the President of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, visited the country's first kitchen factory.
The facility, built in Bucha, Kyiv region, on the initiative of the First Lady and with the support of The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, was also attended by philanthropist Howard Buffett, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Kuleba, Deputy Minister of Education Andriy Stashkiv, Deputy Minister of Health and Chief State Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin, representatives of the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, heads of Kyiv and Kharkiv regional military administrations, the mayor of Bucha and representatives of international organizations.
As Olena Zelenska emphasized, in April of 2013, she and philanthropist Howard Buffett raised the first symbolic bucket of earth at the beginning of this construction.
"But it all started not even with that bucket, but with a great desire to rebuild Ukraine, Bucha and, in general, a normal life and opportunities for Ukrainians. Mr. Howard wanted to help Ukraine not only recover from the Russian onslaught, but also to become better. And above all, he wanted to help children and education. The President, whom he approached, told him that before the invasion, I had initiated a school nutrition reform. The very next day, we sat with Mr. Howard and discussed what we could do," Olena Zelenska explained.
She noted that the decision to support the de-occupied territories and at the same time continue the school nutrition reform was fundamental.
"Our children want and will continue to study and build their future. We wanted to give them a healthy, nutritious, modern menu to support not only their physical strength but also their morale," the First Lady emphasized.
"The opening of the kitchen today represents not just a better future for the children in Ukraine, but it demonstrates to the world that Ukraine continues to move forward, to stay strong and to look to the future," said Howard Buffett.
The kitchen factory model is one of the three innovative technological models for organizing children's nutrition developed and approved as part of the implementation of the school nutrition reform in 2020–2022. Its uniqueness lies not only in its scale but also in ensuring compliance with high-quality standards and HACCP requirements, guaranteeing the reliability and safety of the food.
A kitchen factory is a separate enterprise where meals are prepared, rapidly chilled (to a temperature of +3° C), and then delivered in a cooled state to educational institutions and health and recreation facilities. Its production capacity allows for the preparation of up to 10,000 portions of food per day, providing quality meals to 30-40 educational institutions. With this system, children in both large cities and small villages will receive equally healthy and nutritious meals.
Starting in January-February next year, the main consumers of the products of the newly built kitchen factory in Bucha will be schools and pre-schools in Bucha and three communities at once: Bucha, Nemishajeve and Borodyanka.
"These will be lunches prepared not just in a new building, but using modern equipment. Using modern technologies. And according to the new requirements of the reform - to be both healthy and tasty at the same time," Olena Zelenska said.
According to her, special attention will be paid to the operation of the Bucha facility, as it is to be the starting point for the construction of a number of similar facilities in Ukraine. The second kitchen factory will be built in Lozova, Kharkiv region. It will feed about 14,000 schoolchildren and preschoolers in five communities of the Lozova district every day.
"The school nutrition reform continues. For each region, we are choosing the best option: some will have a kitchen factory, like here, others already have hub kitchens - this is a different model, when one school, where the equipment has already been updated, cooks for many others. We want to raise a healthy generation and we will do it. No matter what," the First Lady emphasized.
The guests familiarized themselves with the operating system of the kitchen factory and the functioning of its separate technological zones, talked to the staff and took part in the preparation and tasting of the first dishes.