Only one banana and one bread were the ration given by the PAE in several schools in Cartagena

Complaints from parents and the Personería de Cartagena highlighted the dubious ration that the PAE school food plan has provided to several schools in the district. According to the rations, they would have sent only one banana, in some cases a green banana, and a loaf, failing to comply with the dairy product that they have to provide to educational institutions.

With regard to non-compliance, the Education Secretariat of the District of Cartagena reported that the operators had reported the non-compliance one day before delivery, in the evening: “By email, the operators reported, at 22:00 on March 15, that they would not be able to deliver the complete rations in reason for alleged non-compliance with its dairy suppliers. According to the courier sent, Cartagena Express was expecting a load of 141,000 units of flavored milk and oats. The children of La Heroica planned to receive a total of 120,000 units of dairy and oats. These products were intended to attend the days of March 16, 17 and 18 in all educational places”.

According to the entity, the Andina Milk company, it would have lost contact around 6:30 in the afternoon with the vehicle in charge of transporting dairy products, thus leaving no communication with the vehicle's GPS signal.

“The Secretariat of Education of the District of Cartagena regrets and rejects the late notification of the operators and recalls that the arguments expressed do not exempt them from the administrative and contractual decisions applied to them by the District within the framework of current contracts”, assured the entity.

For its part, the Personería assured that non-compliance in educational institutions was not an isolated event on March 16, but that on the contrary, it happened on other occasions throughout this year: “In the islands there was no ration delivery during the week of February 21 to 25, in the week from 28 to March 4, some rations arrived in poor condition and the week of March 7 to 11 they did not arrive,” said Personera Carmen de Caro Meza.

Due to this situation and the state of the food, several institutions, such as Nuevo Bosque and Mother Laura, have decided not to accept rations. For its part, a detailed situation report is underway to see what legal actions must be taken with the operators involved in the PAE school feeding contracts.

For more information on school feeding, so far this student year, in Boyacá, Antioquia, Risaralda, Cundinamarca and Meta, possible outbreaks of foodborne diseases (FTA) have been reported in meals delivered by the School Meal Plan (PAE). The Ministry of National Education (MEN), through its Food for Learning Unit (UAPA), and the Ministry of Health (MinSalud) are monitoring the cases and some of the affected minors have undergone medical tests.

It has been detailed that there are five municipalities in Boyacá where ASD cases have been detected: Paipa, Sáchica, Belén, Soatá and Socotá. According to published epidemiological reports, the causes of the infections were related to a bacterium known as Bacillus Cereus, present in Nutralac whole milk powder, which was supplied through the EAP.

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