Food for thought (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Food for thought

NATIONAL SCHOOL MEALS WEEK: It is the start of National School Meals Week today. It aims to encourage children to eat fruit and vegetables.

LYNDSAY SCANLAN has been chatting to children, parents and schools to find out what children are eating at lunchtime in Swindon.

EVERY child should be given a free, hot school dinner, is the message from a Swindon mum.

Katharine Nash, 37, of Taw Hill, thinks children are being cheated out of a healthy school dinner because of a shortfall in cash.

Her message comes at the beginning of National School Meals Week, which aims to encourage children's recognition of fresh healthy food.

In Swindon there are 84 schools in total, made up of 67 primary, 10 secondary and seven special schools.

Swindon Council will get about £220,000 in a new Government drive to improve school meals. It received the first half in September and is now considering how best to spend it.

"There must be more money given for school meals in Swindon for the sake of our children," said Mrs Nash, a mum and school governor.

"I'm not blaming schools and I'm not blaming the council for the situation we are in at the moment but between the two something must be done to help give children a better start.

"At the moment some children get a hot meal cooked in school, others have it brought in and reheated and some children have no hot meal at all.

"A hot and nutritious meal in the middle of the day is crucial to help children develop.

"Eating a well-balanced hot meal at school is not only good for children's general health and well being but it also develops their social skills.

"I think schools should introduce new practices to encourage children to eat a good meal.

"Schools could open up canteens to the community.

"Parents could go into school at lunchtime to eat with their children. Elderly people could also go into school and have lunch, which would bridge the generation gap.

"She added: "I just think something must be done soon to boost school dinners in schools."

Mrs Nash, has two children, Naomi, 12, and James six.

"Ideally, I think the council should have enough money to be able to give every single school pupil a free hot meal. Surely this should be a priority in their budget."

Barbara Owen, 62, worked as a dinner lady at Beechcroft Infants' School for 30 years and since her retirement this year provides holiday cover.

She thinks it is a shame that school meals have come to the current situation.

"You can't blame the schools for the dinners," she said. "They haven't got enough money.

"People don't realise what a hard job the cooks have got trying to cook dinners with the little bit of money they've got and they do their best."

Mrs Owen feels sad that school meals have changed so much over the last 30 years.

"When I started all the children would sit down and have a freshly cooked hot meal, like a roast with vegetables, and then a nice hot pudding. It would fill them up all day," she said.

"But now because there's no money a lot of them are just

having cold sandwiches and it's not enough, especially in the winter when they need something hot inside them. It's such a shame."

She added: "I think the council should have to provide enough money so the cooks can give the children a good healthy meal."

Swindon Council spokesman Richard Freeman said: "In 2002-3 the Government changed the way school meals are provided, making it the responsibility of school governing bodies, not councils.

"This meant that schools were able to decide who provided their meals, and whether they should be hot or cold.

"By 2004-5 only around a quarter of schools in the borough, 22 in total, continued to have hot meals provided on a contract basis by Swindon Services.

"At the start of this financial year, a number of the 22 schools indicated that they wanted to reduce their meal provision further, which meant that it became uneconomic for Swindon Services to provide hot school meals to the remaining 16 schools, with effect from 22 July 2005."