“Farmers Saeima” association representative Juris Lazdiņš told Latvian Television December 16 that food packages distributed to pupils during state of emergency should consist of local products.
Currently, pupils who are forced to learn remotely and also those at schools receive packed meals from municipalities.
Lazdiņš said that the content of food packages is currently very different from school to school.
"There are both well-composed packages and not so great, but we conceptually believe that there should be products from Latvian farmers and producers.
Why? There is a rather contradictory situation: on the one hand, the government takes loans to mitigate COVID-19's influence in the sectors, there is aid, subsidized jobs. On the other hand, when buying Polish, Russian, Estonian, Lithuanian products for these packages, we contribute to these countries' businesses, we encourage the preservation of other countries' jobs," said Lazdiņš.