At the same time that the governor of Río Negro
Alberto Weretilneck visited the Minister of the Interior
Guillermo Francos
on Wednesday
to convey the invitation of the Patagonian leaders to the President to a
summit with them in Chubut on March 7
, his Minister of Social Development demanded together with their peers from 10 provinces, sending funds for
school meals
, a crucial assistance tool.
The claim adds to the pressure from social organizations, which this Thursday mobilized again
at the Economy
: they denounce the shortage of supplies to soup kitchens.
The claim of the provincial delegates was not as ecumenical as
the letter the 24 Ministers of Education
to the country sent to the Secretary of Education
Carlos Torrondell
after the Government announced the suspension of the
National Teacher Incentive Fund
.
“Until Javier Milei took office, no government went so far as to
drastically cut
food aid to
snack bars and school cafeterias
.
"We are facing an unprecedented and serious situation for the most unprotected," states the document to which the representatives of
7 Peronist provinces (La Rioja, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santiago del Estero and Formosa) and the governments of
Tierra del Estero also adhered
.
Fuego, Neuquén and Misiones
.
The Buenos Aires minister
Andrés Larroque
served as host at the House of the Province in the City.
That detail prevented ministries from the PRO and UCR districts from joining the claim.
The Catamarca delegate Raúl Jalil, a governor
increasingly aligned with the Casa Rosada , also missed the mark, although not as much as
Osvaldo Jaldo
from Tucumán
.
Gustavo Sáenz, from Salta, who this week passed by Balcarce 50, also did not send anyone.
The JxC governors have already warned that they will not participate in
any political meeting called by Axel Kicillof
.
The signatory ministers demanded that the Secretary of Family and Children (former Social Development)
Pablo de la Torre
and the Minister of Human Capital
Sandra Pettovello
convene the Federal Council for Social Development as soon as possible.
"The Nation distances itself from these possibilities but keeps the resources. For the School Food Service (SAE) they allocated
$47 billion
for the entire year , that is less than what the Province allocates in a month. There is an increase of 50% of the demand for food and everything indicates that it will continue to grow," Larroque declared in radio statements.
So far there have been no transfers.
Unofficially, in the Government the response is the same as always.
“The position is what Milei has been saying:
that the provinces take charge
of what corresponds to them,” they maintain.
Strictly speaking, the contribution of the national administration to the School Food Systems of the 24 districts is regulated by several resolutions and some long-standing laws.
The national State contributed, for example, between
28 and 30 percent to the most populous districts
, with the exception of the City, and 15 percent to others.
In total, according to official numbers,
18,496 schools received subsidies
for food reinforcements and
there were nearly 3 million students
under the same agreement.
With the transfer of Education to the provinces, in 1994, the districts absorbed the competition over school cafeterias, but with the crisis of 2002, the State began to assist the districts and up to a percentage of the co-participation must have that destination.
In 2022, Larroque (who was then general secretary of La Cámpora and had not left Máximo Kirchner) signed an
update agreement with Juan Zabaleta
and Alberto Fernández at the Casa Rosada.
In the 2023 Budget - extended because the Government did not send a new one for this year - the
extension of the food emergency
(voted in 2019)
until 2025 was voted
.
The question that arises is whether with year-on-year inflation that was
238.5%
in January , the Government can continue to reduce food spending.
The budget for food items in
2023 was $470 billion
, but with the reallocation of items, Social Development spent almost double that amount last year.
Resolution
8/2020
that established the publicized
Argentina Plan against Hunger
, which tried to be one of Alberto Fernández's flags, was never canceled and among its components it includes the collaboration of the Government to ensure the
benefits of school cafeterias.
The same occurs with law 25724
that created the National Nutrition Program,
law 18,612
, on school cafeterias enacted in 1970, which lost force with the decentralization of Education.
The UTEP, meanwhile, complained this Thursday in front of the Treasury Palace about the social policy of the Government, which this week made official changes in the Empower Work to distribute them among the former Portfolio of Social Development to Work and limit the influence of the management units (cooperatives) that control social organizations.
In this context, on Saturday the Barrios de Pie group organizes a forum at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters about the food emergency in which Buenos Aires officials, the former Minister of Social Development Daniel Arroyo will participate and which will have the surprising presence of the radical
Facundo Manes, converted into a tough opponent against Milei's management and who will expand on
a report on
child malnutrition
.