Cherkizovo Group, Russia’s largest meat producer, launches a new stage of its campaign to renovate canteens at Russian schools together with Smenka, a social initiative and YouTube show. The renovation competition kicked off in October and will cover schools in 18 regions across the company's footprint. In addition to canteen renovation, Cherkizovo and Smenka, with support from Rospotrebnadzor’s Healthy Eating. and Sanprosvet projects will help promote healthy eating, personal hygiene and sanitation literacy among schoolchildren.
For the second year running, Cherkizovo Group has launched a competition to renovate school canteens in Russian regions. The competition will be held in two stages.Three schools will get to see their canteens fully renovated in the spring of 2024 as the company will revamp the premises and replace tables, chairs and tableware, while also providing decorations for the walls and retrofitting the cafeterias. Applications will be accepted until November 30 before the winners are announced on December 10.
An important social initiative, the competition has been attracting strong interest from schools all across Russia, with a total of 500 applications submitted to Cherkizovo and Smenka last year. This time, the turnout might well be much more impressive as the company’s geography has expanded and its sites now operate in 18 Russian regions instead of 15 last year. These are the Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Moscow, Tula, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Penza, Orel, Kursk, Tambov, Bryansk, Belgorod, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions, Altai Territory, Bashkortostan and Moscow.
The campaign will continue to be partnered by Rospotrebnadzor’s Healthy Eating and Sanprosvet awareness projects. Information boards developed by the projects' experts will be available across all the renovated canteens, covering the basics of healthy and nutritious diets and personal hygiene.
“Last year, Cherkizovo Group together with the Smenka initiative and Rospotrebnadzor’s Healthy Eating project launched a social campaign to renovate school canteens. This has helped to revamp, upgrade, and reinvigorate three canteens: two in the Penza Region and one in the Altai Territory. Also, thanks to our information boards, students are now more aware of how to eat a balanced diet and live a healthy life. Emotions from students and teachers alike have inspired us to go ahead with our campaign in the 2023–2024 school year,” said Anastasia Mikhailova, head of communications at Cherkizovo Group.
“We care very much about building trust with children. It I It is from a very young age that your family and school help you start eating healthy, embark on a balanced lifestyle, and learn the basics of personal hygiene. Our first joint campaign to renovate school canteens with Cherkizovo Group was spot on, attracting massive personal and candid feedback from kids. We are happy to see our campaign go on and hope to see even more schools from across Russia join it,” commented Yekaterina Golovkova, information supervisor of Rospotrebnadzor’s Healthy Eating and Sanprosvet projects.
“It is really exciting for us to continue our joint efforts to revamp school premises. We now know from experience that canteens matter for students: following the renovation, kids are more willing to spend time there and hang out with friends, and it makes perfect sense given how nice and comfortable the new spaces are. Also, the schools that did not make it into the final stage get inspiration from our YouTube show to drive transformations even without our direct involvement. Our competition is now open – join in and help a school in your home region win," said Arina Nuriakhmetova, a co-founder of Smenka.
