It is argued school meal rules are driving pupils to fast food outlets

Glasgow school meals chief argues 'rules too draconian'

18th May 2010, 2:51pm

Strict healthy eating rules are forcing pupils to ignore school lunches in favour of fast food, says Fergus Chambers, who runs Glasgow's school meals service.

He said that healthy school food regulations were "draconian" and many pupils were now rejecting school dinners in favour of rushing to chip shops.

Chambers, who runs Cordia, the city's school meals provider, is reported by the BBC as saying existing rules mean diet drinks, flavoured water and even home baking in schools while pupils could walk out of the gate and buy anything they want.

On BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme he was reported as saying: "There are draconian specifications in place.

"Everybody accepts we want to improve the diet of children and reduce obesity. The question is, is it the right way of going about it?"

He said schools and local authorities needed to have the power to keep children in the playground at lunchtime or ban food vans from operating near schools.

" We have got a great gulf between the caterers whose job is to sell more meals and those of us who believe that children need to be provided with what is best for them.

"But none of this is realistically going to happen and I believe the answer is to allow the school meals service to compete by providing food which is healthy, but which still has the flavour to entice kids to buy it," he is reported as saying.

The issue is being raised at a conference on Scottish diet, organised by Glasgow University's Faculty of Medicine department.

But the university's Professor Mike Lean said it was absurd for school meal providers to argue against nutritionally balanced meals.

He is reported as saying: "If caterers can't manage to make them attractive and exciting and interesting then they need to go back to school."

He did admit, though, that pupils often went to fast food shops at lunchtime instead of eating a healthy school meal.

Figures show the number of secondary pupils in Scotland eating in school dining halls fell to 39.2% last year, the lowest level for a decade. Uptake of school meals in Glasgow fell to 38%, compared with 61% in 2006.

However, the number of primary pupils eating school meals has increased since the regulations were introduced.

The drive to improve food served in Scottish schools began in 2003 with the Hungry for Success initiative, launched under the previous administration.

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Simon Farrer

20 May 2010 at 12:32pm

It's unfortunate that colleagues in Glasgow are experiencing a downturn. School meals in Perth and Kinross are gradually on the increase. We have found that provided you talk and listen to pupils, explain reasons for change, link this with their Education, invest in your facilities and people and continually develop the service(just like the high street have to), then you can win friends and influence people.

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