In April, more than 7800 daily menus were delivered to the six UNR dining rooms. For students the price of lunch or dinner is 130 pesos and breakfast or snack is 80 pesos. From May and during the winter, the solidarity and free soup is delivered.
UNR Rector Franco Bartolacci announced the expansion of the Siberia University Dining Room and the construction of a central kitchen in order to double the daily production of menus, guaranteeing greater community access to this benefit. With a significant investment from the UNR, today students can eat four meals a day for less than 500 pesos.
The announced work foresees the expansion of the kitchen of the Siberia dining room, adding a new space that will be called the central dining room kitchen, incorporating the necessary infrastructure for it to become a centralized production unit that will double the number of menus offered in each one. of the headquarters that are distributed in geographical points of the city where there are dependencies of the UNR. In addition, the work contemplates expanding the dining room of Berutti and Riobamba. All this will be done from the remodeling of two UNR properties adjacent to the current Comedor de la Siberia.
During the month of April 2023, more than 150 menus were served, which represents a daily average of more than 7800 menus in the 6 UNR dining rooms, an average well above last year. The economic situation that the country is going through and the inflationary escalation that negatively impacts the life of the UNR community as well as that of society as a whole, prompted a progressive increase in demand, going from the 450 thousand menus offered in 2021 to 950 thousand in 2022.
Bartolacci emphasized the “enormous collective effort of the UNR” that allows maintaining a very accessible menu price and highlighted the importance of continuing to strengthen and consolidate the dining room policy. “We know the importance that soup kitchens have for our entire community. And we are going to continue strengthening this tool because it helps our students a lot to continue their studies in this context of economic crisis and escalating inflation,” he confirmed. The Universidad Nacional de Rosario It supports six dining rooms that offer lunch/dinner for 130 pesos and breakfast/snack for 80 pesos. “There is no University in the country that has such an extensive network of dining halls and with such affordable prices. And this is the case at UNR because we assume the commitment to extreme care and support policies for our community,” he noted.
On the other hand, from the UNR it was also reported that with the return of the low temperatures, the sale of free soup returns in any of the six establishments: that of Siberia, in Berutti and Riobamba, that of Veterinary Sciences in Casilda, the of Agricultural Sciences in Zavalla, the one of the Health Area in the corner of Santa Fe and Ricchieri, the one of the Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying in Pellegrini 250 and the one of the Downtown Area in Córdoba 1917.
During the past year, work was also done on equipping the college bars, which also offer affordable alternatives. Bars were opened in Law, Psychology and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. This year, the Dentistry bar and the Faculty of Economic Sciences and the canteen of the Superior School of Commerce were inaugurated, and in the coming weeks Political Science and International Relations will be added. These are spaces that were mostly concessioned and that the UNR recovered after the pandemic in a public management scheme that not only allowed them to be reopened but also guaranteed a cheaper service.
It should be remembered that in the last four years the University completed the presence of dining rooms in all the areas where the UNR has offices with the inauguration of the Center Dining Room, in Córdoba street and the construction work of the Health Area Dining Room.
In total, during 2022, $270 million was invested in infrastructure, equipment, operation of dining rooms and fitting out new spaces, such as bars, which made it easier to guarantee the most economical price for the dining room service in the country.
Journalist: Micaela Pereyra/Photographer: Camila Casero.