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Miscellaneous - School Meals

Children are being served up school dinners which cost just 32p a time - 10p LESS than is spent on prisoners. The shockingly low cost of the lunches - for which parents pay around £1.50 - was discovered in a survey of 10 school catering companies across England and Wales. Private caterers are responsible for providing meals for more than four million primary school children every day. The price per meal is dictated by local education authorities who invite private companies to bid for contracts to produce meals at that cost. And minimum nutritional standards set by the Government must be met by the company providing the meals.

But parents who rely on their child's school to provide them with their main meal will be concerned about whether the best possible ingredients can be bought for such a low price. A typical school lunch could include pizza, sausages or burgers, with baked beans, coleslaw and chips followed by jam tart with raspberry sauce. The study was carried out by Professor Kevin Morgan, of Cardiff University. He said, "Catering staff are being asked to perform minor miracles when they try to deliver quality meals at a price which most people would consider impossibly low." Local Authority Caterers Association chairman Sue Kilbey denied that meals were being produced for 32p a time - or that quality was suffering. "We believe the cost is more like 45p to 50p as a national average," she said. "School caterers can and do produce a good quality meal at that level."

Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said, "We've always feared that privatising school meals has made a great difference". Nutrition expert Frankie Robinson warned, "32p does sound extremely cheap. Meals must be balanced, with meat, carbohydrates and vegetables."

TYPICAL SCHOOL LUNCH MENU
Pizza or sausages, baked beans, coleslaw and chips.
Jam tart with raspberry sauce.


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