For the third year running, the school nutrition reform was showcased at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) — this time in Gdańsk.
The EUACI supported the presentation of the nutrition reform while the program is engaged in reducing corruption risks across school canteen construction and renovation projects .
This year was by far the largest and most ambitious presentation yet. Behind it stands the tremendous work of the nutrition reform team. The results of the reform speak for themselves. More than 1,700 school kitchens and cafeterias have already been modernized across Ukraine.
38 culinary hubs were created, where more than 9,500 chefs were trained to cook in a modern way. Today, 2 million Ukrainian pupils receive healthy and tasty food at school for free every day. And from September 2026, all students will — that is about 3 million children in total.
Not only were the results presented, but also a real kitchen serving dishes from the school menu. Over two days, hundreds of guests had the opportunity to taste the meals that Ukrainian schoolchildren receive today. And, as always, there was a queue.
One of key components of the reform is an independent monitoring system for state subvention funds, developed in partnership between the EUACI, the School Nutrition Reform Team, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. This system ensures supervision at every stage of the school canteens’ reconstruction — from documentation review to completion of works — enabling transparent and efficient use of public funds.
In 2024-2026, the EUACI experts analyzed 465 projects before the start of construction. As a result, 362.9 million UAH of unjustified expenses were identified, which were redirected to the implementation of 39 additional projects.
The experience of implementing this monitoring system formed the basis of a practical guide presented at the URC. Find out more: https://cutt.ly/bt5csJ5Q
In 2026–2027, we plan to deepen our cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science. A new priority will be the implementation of an IT tool for the systematic monitoring of food prices and catering service costs in schools. And we will continue to monitoring procurement and construction works of canteens.
