(By Emanuela Ricci) On a local newspaper of Colleferro, City Chronicles, an article was published: “Storm in schools. Canteen with poor food and disproportionate costs. Parents on a war footing. On Monday the Mayor meets the company with the ASL…”
The Colleferrina newspaper has made public a problem that is not widely publicized but has been known for months by the teaching staff and the parents of the pupils who attend public schools where there is a canteen service. There have been several complaints from parents also via pec, addressed to the Municipality and to the schools concerned: they never received any response !!! In this regard, it is recalled that: “… anyone has the right to write to a public administration and to receive a courteous, unequivocal and timely reply. Failure to reply, in fact, represents a violation of official duties and is punishable by law (Article 328 of the Criminal Code, as amended by Article 16 of Law No. 26 of 1990 April 86, and reaffirmed by jurisprudence, ex multis, by the Criminal Cassation, section VI, 4 October 2001, no. 41645)".
Parents' testimonials
"Despite the alternation between two private firmsSome parents report the quality of the canteen service has never been adequate, lacking in quality and quantity, compared to the price of 5 euros per meal requested. We want to be clear on the origin and quality of the food that is served to our children. And above all, how it is stored, where it is cooked and how it is transported.
"Some teachers, in a superficial way and without any legal right, have forbidden the students to consume the meal brought from home ". says a mother.
Is the canteen service compulsory?
It seems to be witnessing scenes from a film whose script was written badly, or whoever was appointed to write it did not know the rules and the jurisprudence which is clear and lapidary in this regard. We try to clarify.
Is the canteen service compulsory in schools? Can families be forced to leave their children to eat at noon with their classmates? If a parent has no choice, if they are not allowed to find another solution for lunch, Is it compulsory to pay for the school canteen? Or are you free to find an intermediate solution, such as sending your child to school with a home-cooked lunch? The in-depth study done on is very interesting laleggepertutti.it da Carlos Arija Garcia.
Recently, there have been conflicting rulings about the school's power to mandate family service. The United Sections of the Cassation expressed themselves in one way and, subsequently, the TAR of Lazio in another.
First of all, it must be said that there is no law that requires a family to enroll their child in the school canteen. It is, therefore, a optional service to which parents can join because they have no alternatives to feed the child at noon or they can not join because, for example, the child's lunch is taken care of by the grandparents or the parent who does not work or is in smart working.
Having said this, it may happen that a family does not have a foothold at noon to feed their child, for example because the parents work far from home and do not have time to return for lunch, because the grandparents are not there or they are not in the physical condition to look after the grandchildren. The father and mother, therefore, find themselves in the position of having to leave their child at school during the lunch break. But it is said that, economically, they can afford it.
There would be that intermediate solution that was mentioned just now: the possibility of giving the child food in a container when he leaves the house in the morning so that he can consume it at school at noon. It's possible? Can the child bring his lunch from home to school?
In 2019, a sentence of the United Sections of the Cassation - Cass. SS.UU. sent. no. 20504/2019 – had absolutely excluded it. This right, according to the Supreme Court, does not exist when the school provides the cafeteria service. The judges explain:A perfect and unconditional subjective right to individual self-refection, during canteen hours and on school premises, cannot be configured in favor of primary and lower secondary school pupils", so long as "it would be improper private interference in the management of a service which, as organized by the school administration, does not require the teaching staff to supervise the pupils who have lunch with the home meal». The sentence also states that the children must eat at the table because that is the place where it is made "anutrition education».
However, a year later, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court reversed the situation, accepting the appeal of a group of parents who were prevented - as established by the Cassation - from send children to school with home-cooked lunch. According to the ruling of the administrative judges - Tar Lazio sent. no. 1576/2020 - it is not lawful to impose the use of the school canteen, due to the fact that it is not an indispensable and essential local public service for the life of the community. Rather - points out the Tar - it is configured as a service "on individual request», as also sanctioned by the law - Ministerial Decree of 31.12.1983: « public services on individual demand – reads the ministerial decree of 1983 – must be understood as all those activities managed directly by the institution, which are not carried out by institutional obligation, which are used at the request of the user and which have not been declared free by national or regional law».
In conclusion, and according to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, children can consume food brought from home at school and in the canteen, provided that - and this is anything but a detail - they do not share it with their classmates and it is not mixed with the meals provided by the school service.
As we have seen in the passage of the decree reported above, the school canteen service falls within those provided at the request of the user and not declared free by national or regional law. It means that the service has a cost and that those who decide to use it he must pay.
What happens, however, if a family is unable to afford the canteen fees and does not have the possibility to have their child eat outside of school? We have just seen one of the solutions: the child can bring food from home. If this does not happen and payment is not made, the school must take action to recover the sums, reminding parents of their obligation to pay, especially when faced with a case of forgetfulness or reluctance to open the wallet and not the family's economic problems.
Insights
TAR Lazio Rome Section III bis, 13 December 2019, n. 14368
The decision to prohibit the consumption of food brought from home (through the instrumental and foreseen prohibition of students intending to have lunch with food other than that supplied by the school refectories from staying on school premises) limits a natural faculty of the individual relating to his personal freedom and, if minor, of the family through the parents, i.e. the choice of food: a choice which - unless there are demonstrated and proportional particular reasons of various safety or decorum - is by its nature and in principle free, and is expressed either inside the home as well as outside them: in other people's places, in places open to the public, in public places.
Students who are not interested in using the canteen service must therefore be recognized the right to still attend the canteen time, without being forced to leave the school premises in full curricular time.
Home-prepared meals, like morning snacks, constitute an extension of the self-managed family food preparation activity, without the intervention of third parties outside the family nucleus; the preparation of these is an activity not subject to the impositions of the current regulations on the hygiene of food products and food businesses and related official controls (Reg. EC n. 178/2004, EC n. 852/2004 n. 882/ 2004), is not subject to forms of health authorization, nor to forms of health checks, and falls completely under the responsibility of the parents or those exercising parental authority, both as regards the preparation and as regards conservation and transporting food to school.
The only competence of the manager and the teaching staff is that which passes through the supervision of minors, aimed at avoiding the exchange of food, the exact same function which, presumably, they should also perform during the morning breaks.