30th August 2007

Dear Sir

News of an 8% drop in school meal take up in Sheffield over the past year (Star website 24 August) is concerning but everyone involved must hold their nerve. The response of Sallie Swann, Sheffield Council's manager in charge of catering contracts, is disappointing. After discussions with caterers she has asked the Schools Food Trust to slow down changes to the menus.

It is just 28 months since the "cheap as chips" scandal highlighted the council failing in it's duty of care to our children. Another way to look at these figures is that 92% of children have stayed with the new menus over the past year and are now eating healthy school meals. This has to be a massive step forward from April 2005 when junk food dominated the menus.

The Schools Food Trust remain determined to push through the plan for even stricter food standards. Obesity and diabetes will cost the NHS billions in years to come so government funding is money well spent. "Jamie's School Dinners" triggered urgent change following a quarter of a century of budget cuts and the government must keep funding the vital work of the Schools Food Trust. They also need to urgently review the current situation where healthy eating menus could disappear if councils like Sheffield struggle to balance the books.

A future where children have Coco Pops for breakfast, burger and chips for lunch and takeaway pizza and fizzy drink for evening meal would have severe consequences for society as a whole. Many parents and children are already showing that they appreciate healthy meals and most people want this encouraging trend to continue.

Yours Sincerely

Eamonn Ward

Sheffield Green Party

Original article

Rotherham kids buck the trend on school meals

Rotherham kids are still tucking in to healthy school dinners - despite evidence that in some areas of the country children are shunning school meals.

The School Food Trust - set up to encourage pupils to eat more healthily - is being urged to slow down planned further changes to school meal menus.

The move comes after some local councils reported a big drop in the number of pupils abandoning school dinners since the last changes were introduced.

New school food standards were initiated two years ago to cut down on the amount of fat, salt, and sugar being consumed by pupils, in favour of fresh fruit, veg, and locally-sourced produce.

In some parts of Britain catering managers say new menus have led to a sharp drop in the number of secondary pupils eating school dinners.
But in Rotherham the number of children eating school meals has remained almost exactly the same.

A Rotherham Council spokesman said: "When the new menus were brought in at the end of 2005 there was a very slight drop in the number of children eating in school - but for the past two years the numbers have remained stable.

"There is no evidence children in Rotherham are boycotting the new menus. We serve up around 15,900 meals a day and a lot of pupils have said how much they enjoy them."

Places like Hull, Bradford and York have all reported a big drop in the number of children staying for school dinners - and in Sheffield the number is said to have fallen by eight per cent in a year.

Sheffield Council's manager in charge of catering contracts, Sallie Swann, said: "We and our caterers have had discussions with the School Food Trust ask if we can slow down the changes to the menu. We are concerned about the numbers dropping off in secondary schools."

The Schools Food Trust was set up by the Government in 2005 to transform the food being eaten in school canteens. It is now responsible for ensuring school menus meet even stricter food standards.
The trust's media manager Emma Heesom said: "We have had letters from caterers and we know some of them would like us to slow down the changes to the menu.

"A slow change would have had its own problems just like a short, sharp shock. There is no easy way to change 20 years of pupils eating what they like when they like."

"We know a lot about what young people don't like. What we need to do is find out what they do like."