KUALA LUMPUR: To fight rising costs, school canteen operators have changed their menu to reduce the use of cooking oil by cutting down on deep fried food as well as chicken and egg-based dishes.
An operator at a school in Bangi, Selangor, who did not want to be named, said he had tweaked his menu to offer oven-baked and toasted dishes as well as soupy noodles.
"I have moved on to preparing baked macaroni, spaghetti carbonara, vermicelli noodles soup, laksa, pizza, bread toast as well as nasi lemak.
"All these do not require a lot of cooking oil in the preparation. I get to save on the costs of bottled cooking oil, the price of which has shot up since last week, as well as chicken as I have limited it to 25 birds a day instead of 60 previously," he told the New Straits Times.
He said he was diversifying his menu to save on costs as school operators are barred from raising prices as they wished while pupils would, at most, spend about RM4 per person at the canteen.
Apart from raw food expenses, he lamented that they have to bear the higher cost of items such as plastic containers, disposable cups and packet drinks, which now cost around 40 per cent more.
He said he had not suffered big losses and, at the same time, does not make some profit from sales at the school canteen, adding that he was able to make do with what he gets at the end of the month.
"However, school canteen operators like me only get to open 175 days a year, which is about six months, after factoring in the school term breaks as well as Ramadan.
"We need to find ways to cover the operations for the remaining six months and we have salaries to pay to workers too, as well as rent, which is thankfully exempted until Dec 31 this year.
"But we have to prepare ahead from now on. We just have to smartly manage during these difficult times. If there are discounted price offers of what I need anywhere, I will quickly grab them," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia School Canteen Operators Association president Khairuddin Hamzah urged the Education Ministry to issue an order to allow school administrators to review the food prices stipulated in their respective contracts.
He said it was high time that the prices were reviewed as the escalating cost of raw food materials had put operators in a bind.
"I am aware of a few school operators who had breached their contract by increasing food prices but no action was taken by the school administrators, who understood their predicament.
"If the price of a certain food warrants a rise, then consent should be given to the operators to do so. However, this will still need approval from the ministry.
"Once the green light is given, only then can it be increased," he said.
Khairuddin also said the current Supplementary Food Programme (RMT) rate of RM2.50 to RM3 rate per student in the peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak respectively, must be re-evaluated.
He said the rate, borne by the government, was no longer relevant as when it was first set back in 2015.
"It should be raised from RM4 to RM4.50 per student, which is the actual cost of one meal provided to each recipient.
"The operators involved in the RMT are suffering losses as the raw food ingredients itself already costs RM2.50 per student. This does not include logistics cost, workers' pay and other costs.
"The operators are not profiting from this. Instead, it looks like they are the ones subsidising the RMT meals for the students," he said.
Khairuddin, who operates a school canteen in Beranang, said he had switched to offering more fried noodles and fried rice and was preparing less chicken and egg-based dishes.
Sales have dropped a little, he said, as chicken and eggs were the favourite food of the students, who do not favour roasted or baked food.
"A drop in sales means we are earning less as we have to cover the rise in raw food material expenses," he said.