No sausages or pizza: What Kazakhstan’s schoolchildren to eat

As of 1 September, inspectors have been granted the authority to conduct inspections at any school without prior notice. This marks the beginning of the new academic year for school catering services in Kazakhstan.

Carbonated beverages, industrially produced confectionery, sausages, processed meats, mayonnaise and fried foods are being removed from school menus and canteens. School canteens will be permitted to offer only baked goods, fruit drinks and kissels; all other confectionery and snack products are prohibited.

In their place, school lunches must include a hot meal every day, with increased quantities of meat and fruit instead of inexpensive carbohydrate-based foods that were previously often used to meet prescribed caloric requirements. Menus are now subject to approval by the public health authorities, while regions retain the right to adapt them to locally available food products.

Parents have also been granted effective mechanisms for participation and oversight. They may take part in food tastings, attend menu inspections, and arrange individualized meals where a child has a medical condition requiring a special diet.

Who provides free meals to children and how

Alongside the introduction of the new menu, the mechanism for providing subsidized meals has also been changed. All students from grades 1 through 4 remain entitled to a free school lunch, regardless of household income. During the current academic year, approximately 192 bln tenge has been allocated for this purpose, covering more than 1.5 mln schoolchildren.

By March 2026, all 8,000 general education schools across the country had transitioned to the Social Wallet digital instrument integrated into the eGov Mobile application. Parents are no longer required to submit applications: an electronic voucher is generated automatically on the basis of information on the family’s social status and remains valid throughout the academic year.

The provision of a meal is recorded in the system immediately, and service providers are paid only for meals actually provided to children, rather than on the basis of a general class-level request. Through the application, parents can see in real time whether their child received a meal on a given day, view the weekly menu, and submit a complaint or feedback directly through the platform.

What happens next

In formal terms, the new system is considerably more transparent than the previous paper-based arrangement, under which it was almost impossible to determine whether a meal had actually reached an individual child. However, the new menu requirements and digital accounting system are being introduced simultaneously, while concerns raised by catering operators regarding discrepancies between regulated prices and actual costs have yet to be resolved in any region.

The coming months will likely show whether service providers can meet the new food requirements without adjustments to the applicable payment rates, or whether parents will once again have to contend with temporary exemptions from the established rules.