Parents urged to sign up to healthy meals (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Parents urged to sign up to healthy meals

PARENTS who fail to sign their children up for school meals could be jeopardising plans for healthier menus in Wiltshire.

The claim comes from the chairman of Wiltshire County Council's overview and scrutiny management committee, who this week were handed an interim report on the provision of school meals.

Among the areas outlined for improvement were healthier menus and increased funding by the county council.

Chairman Jeff Osborn said catering firms such as Sodexho, which supplies schools in north and west Wiltshire, could not move forward with healthier eating plans unless parents bought into the idea.

He said: "This whole issue of healthy food is obviously very popular but unless more people take up the healthy options then Sodexho won't do it.

"As far as I can see, Sodexho are not making any money on this scheme at the moment. It's a Catch 22 situation. If more people take up school meals then we could have better school meals."

Healthier school meals have become a hot topic of discussion after a campaign by TV chef Jamie Oliver, who took a petition to Downing Street.

Sodexho, who were consulted as part of the report, are trialling a healthier menu at Sherston Primary School, and will analyse its success before making a decision.

A spokesman for the company said: "Sodexho has been an active member of the scrutiny task group and fully supports the council's initiative.

"It welcomes the opportunity to work with the children, parents and schools to develop a successful school meals service and is looking forward to the results of the enhanced menu trial at Sherston Primary School.

"Sodexho does a lot of work behind the scenes to boost the nutritional content of its school meals while retaining their appeal to children and sees lowering the salt, sugar and fat content of its food as a key part of its healthier eating policy."

But Cllr Osborn said making the healthier option a reality depended on the level of interest shown in schools.

"The main thing is not enough people are taking up the school meals at the moment," he said.

"If enough people take it up catering firms could make the food much more attractive, nutritional and healthy."

He said the introduction of more health-conscious menus would also depend largely on funding at county council level.

"At the end of the day it depends on how much money we can put into the whole exercise.

"It's definitely the way forward, but like everything in local government it depends on the money."

The cabinet is due to look at the report in July, when a new task force will be put in place to consider the future of food provision in schools.