Sun, 20 Aug 2000

A school day without snacks? Impossible!

JAKARTA (JP): Horror stories abound of food poisoning or the long list of additives and preservatives in many snacks sold near schools.

Yet some students and parents say that buying snacks during school hours is unavoidable, even though they worry the food is unhealthy or prepared in unhygienic conditions.

Sri Rejeki, 12, student of private Bintang Pancasila elementary school in Penjaringan, North Jakarta:

It's impossible for me not to have snacks during school hours because my mother doesn't cook breakfast. I always buy nasi uduk (rice cooked in coconut milk) or fried rice for Rp 500. I have snacks at least twice a day because my school (which starts at 7 a.m.) ends at 1 p.m, when I feel hungry again.

I usually choose cheap snacks because I have to make do with daily pocket money of Rp 1,000.

I have heard that the snacks are unhygienic but I have been fine up to now.

I once brought food from home but I ended up sharing it with friends, so I bought the snacks anyway.

Maskun, 42, a cleaner at the Marine Museum in North Jakarta and father of an elementary school student:

My wage is only Rp 200,000 per month but about Rp 30,000 of it is for pocket money for Budi, my second son who is still in elementary school. My wife has no time to prepare food in the morning because she is also a cleaning service employee at the museum and has to work with me from early in the morning.

Enay, a housemaid from a slum area in Menteng, Central Jakarta. She has a daughter, Maya:

I am always bothered by Maya's habit of having snacks at school because she loves it very much. She will cry loudly if I do not give her money for the snacks, which makes my husband angry and he always orders me to give in to her.

I also feel embarrassed every time she cries for snacks because houses in my neighborhood are very close together and my neighbors are bound to overhear.

The snacks often make her sick, like her chronic cough. The last time it cost me Rp 9,000 to treat her for a throat infection at a Menteng public health center. Maybe she drank too many beverages containing chemical substances.

Sigit, 9, student of Al Falah Islamic school in Luar Batang, North Jakarta:

"I cannot help myself every time I see the snacks, and my friends also buy them. I like the quail's egg crepe very much, and I buy it almost every day for Rp 100 each. I enjoy eating the crepe, especially with sauce. What's more I can also help cook it on the special iron griddle ...

After the snack I usually drink a Rp 200 cold "orange juice". The vendor actually sells plain tea at a cheaper price -- Rp 100 -- but I don't like it because it is tasteless.

My parents never prohibit me from buying the snacks, either at home or at my school. They give me Rp 1,500 for snacks and transportation (daily).

Marlina, 10, student at 01 Ampiun state elementary school in Central Jakarta:

I once had a cough which my mother said was due to the beverages I drank at school. I have brought a bottle of water to school since then, but I cannot do it all the time because I want to go along with my friends who buy syrupy drinks after snacking.

Andi, 11, a student of the 01 Manggarai state elementary school in South Jakarta:

I very rarely buy snacks at school, especially after reports of students who suffered food poisoning (last year). Since that time my mother repeatedly warned me not to buy food from vendors.

My mother only lets me to have food bought from clean stalls.

Amrin, vegetable seller at Cikini Market:

I cannot be too strict with my two elementary school sons about having snacks at school because their friends have them too. But I urge them to buy gado-gado (mixed vegetables in peanut sauce) or ketoprak (a salad of bean sprouts, tofu and rice noodles in peanut sauce) because those kinds of foods do not use chemical substances.(ind)