A member of the public has pushed for changes to school meals as Wokingham Borough Council has set a new contract to deliver meals to pupils.
Helen Palmer urged the council to make changes to school menus to provide more vegan options and hold more meat free days, implying guidelines for menus at the moment are based on outdated beliefs that children need to eat meat.
School meals in Wokingham Borough are currently provided by Caterlink, which is based in Earley.
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Speaking at a council meeting, Helen Palmer said: “School meals are chosen by pupils from a menu produced by Caterlink on behalf of Wokingham Borough Council who manages the contract.
“Could the relevant councillors and officers, please, insist on two small but important changes to the menu?
“Firstly, to implement a meat-free Monday every week (currently this is two Mondays in three) in all schools, whilst continuing to offer fish but no meat on Fridays.
“Secondly, to offer a vegan choice every day. Currently vegan choices appear just two or three times a week.
“For many children, school lunch is the only solid meal of the day. It needs to be nutritious and balanced.
“In the past it was believed that children needed regular meat to provide protein and iron, but research shows that lentils, beans, and quorn provide these and other nutrients in abundance and without saturated fat.
“Therefore, I am asking for a healthier menu, not an impoverished one. It is also vital that, every day of the week, every child can select a meal which respects their ethics, religion, culture, and food allergies.
“Meat has a big carbon footprint. This change will make a small but significant contribution to the Borough’s carbon reduction target.”
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Her question was addressed to councillor Grahame Howe, the executive member for childrens services (Conservative, Remenham, Wargrave and Ruscombe).
In reply, Cllr Howe said: “I absolutely agree that school dinners are an important meal to keep pupils sustained.
“The catering company and Wokingham Borough Council agree a menu which is submitted to the schools to consider at the beginning of each year. Each school understands the demographics of its children. Therefore, it is they who can make changes, taking into account their children’s ethics, religion, culture, and food allergies.
“We will pass on your suggestions to the schools to extend meat free Mondays and daily vegan choice. Schools do promote healthy dieting and now have much about climate control in their curriculums. Children today, like many other things, have a better awareness of these subjects than their parents and it is the children who will choose what they consume, hopefully healthily.”
The exchange occurred at a meeting of Wokingham Borough Council’s executive committee on Thursday, July 29.
During the meeting, the executive committee decided to draw up a new contract for a company to provide school meals for some 34 schools in the borough.
Cllr Howe explained that it is now up to council officers in the Childrens Services department to negotiate the new contract and find the contractor to provide the service.
The childrens services were given the go ahead to negotiate the contract at the meeting.
The current contract with Caterlink expires in July 2022. A committee paper states that procurement -or the formation- of a new contract needs to begin by September 2021 ahead of its implementation in August 2022, ready for the 2022-23 academic year beginning that September.
Whether Caterlink will retain the contract remains to be seen.
School meals can come at a cost to children in the borough. Meals are free at infant schools and up to Year 2 at primary school. From Year 3 onwards, the cost of a school meal is £2.10. At secondary schools, meals cost £2.30.
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In order to get free school meals after Year 2, a pupil has to be in receipt of a benefit called the pupil premium.
For more information on obtaining free school meals and the pupil premium, head to the council’s website in this link.
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