Appears to have been a bit of a bizarre discussion at yesterday's Policy and Strategy committee meeting ... about the 'possible' removal of the hot school meal on a Friday afternoons??What's bizarre about it is that there was no report on the agenda, it just came up in general discussion that this cutback was being considered and - quite obviously from the feedback on the meeting - there's been no dialogue whatsoever between the two Coalition partners (Libs/Nats) about the subject matter.
It is indeed yet another, classic example of an ill-considered proposal being 'launched' into the public domain with no thought being given to the likely reaction ... well, not 'likely' almost 'certain' reaction :-(
It does appear to me that the Libs and Nats locally are still operating as two entirely different entities - technically, I know they are - but they are supposed to be in a Coalition that's running Scotland's Capital City and having these constant public, disagreements is doing no one in Edinburgh any good.
Worse still, on the actual subject matter, I heard just today that some Primary Schools (Currie was mentioned to me specifically) have recently seen a real renaissance in the uptake of cooked, school meals.
Now, the on-site production of these meals always helps, but apparently Currie have jumped from just over 100 meals per week being provided, to just short of 500 per week - a truly incredible improvement.
Perfect timing from the Lib/Nat partners to consider removing the Friday afternoon hot meal, wouldn't you say :-((
2 comments:
That's very interesting, Andrew. Did the increase in uptake at Currie co-incide with a change in provision from off-site to on-site catering, or some other change? I'm told (by teachers as well as kids) that the food brought in from off-site kitchens is fairly disgusting. There are better ways to run school dinner operations, based on giving autonomy to school-based cooks. It's hard not to conclude that school dinner provision in Edinburgh is over-centralised.
Anonymous
Thanks for the comment.
I believe at Currie there was indeed a change from off-site to on-site, also a move to a new school building! ... so, no doubt that's all a big part of their incredible increase in uptake. Still pretty impressive though.
My own 10-year old son is at a Council Primary School which brings in food from off-site and he has schools dinners Monday-Thursday ... just goes straight home on a Friday at the end of the half-day.
And, I have to say that, although I absolutely agree that on-site is far preferable, he never complains about the food and always seems to enjoy what he has ... mind you, he is a vegetarian, so that may well help :-))
Andrew
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