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'Fringe' shops battle with schools for business

3rd April 2009, 3:34pm

Not only are secondary school students proving fussier than younger pupils, but caterers now have to compete with food options beyond the school gates. How big is the threat from 'fringe' outlets? Clare Riley reports.

"Fringe shops for secondary school pupils are another source of food. Fringe shops for school caterers are competitors." This was the verdict from Dr Jack Winkler, director of Nutrition Policy at London Metropolitan University. He was talking about the results from the 2008 report entitled 'The School Fringe – What secondary school pupils buy and from the shops around their schools'.

The research team recorded purchases in 16 shops around two large comprehensives in London. Pupils were given a questionnaire regarding the sources of their food and 80% of respondents said they bought from shops outside the school gates at least once a week. Some pupils were found to be visiting fringe outlets 6.5 times a week – more than once a day.

Dr Winkler described why the findings of this report are so significant: "Many would say that school meals reflect excellent value for money but adolescents are extremely price sensitive and will often choose what costs the least. Fringe food is not just about snacks. It is now a major component in school children's diets. Fringe shops are now providing more calories to pupils than school canteens."

Many media reports often cite takeaways as the biggest lure for school pupils but Dr Winkler's research suggests that there is another threat for school caterers emerging outside the school gates. "One of our schools was surrounded by six takeaways and one supermarket but the supermarket had more visits by pupils than all the takeaways put together. Your major competitor is the supermarket and not the takeaway."

Dr Winkler concluded by saying that local authorities must be aware of their competition in the same way other businesses have to be conscious of their rivals: "School fringe is too important to ignore. It offers an escape for those pupils who for whatever reason do not want school meals. To be effective any reforms must deal with not only what happens inside schools but outside schools."

If fringe shops continue to attract students and the Nutrient Standards fail to whet pupils' appetites there could be a significant impact on staff and budgets. Christine Lewis from UNISON spoke to delegates urging them to fully utilise the highly skilled and professional kitchen managers that operate in school canteens. "People are under enormous pressure and there are more cost-cutting exercises aiming to get more for less. Kitchen managers are being made redundant and obviously work is cascading down to kitchen assistants."

Lewis drew on examples from UNISON's recently launched 'Voices from the School Kitchen' report. She said that the report will make for difficult reading, telling delegates to 'read it and weep' and describing the survey as 'short but not very sweet'.

She explained how 80% of respondents to the survey reported working unpaid hours – up to as much as 15 hours a week. The survey showed how most of these unpaid hours consisted of kitchen managers taking home paperwork and staying behind to clean.

"Cleaning is a big issue as time for cleaning appears to be in short supply. If you are serving food at a fast rate there are certain cleaning implications that need to be taken into account," she says. "Jobs are much more complex and will become more complex obviously in September but one thing that has become obvious is that there is no pay increase or salary review involved in this, which many people see as fitting."

Despite making it clear that UNISON's main priority is to support its members, Lewis said that the trade union does want to see the Nutrient Standards become a success. She suggested that to bring pupils back into school canteens, attention must be paid to those behind the scenes: "I have to say we really do support the Nutrient Standards and all of the school reforms but we genuinely believe the transformation of school meals would be severely hampered unless the workforce issues are addressed. We cannot push these issues to one side."

YOU ARE TALKING YOUR SERVICE DOWN

Before taking to the stage, Jeanette Orrey from the Soil Association was instructed to spark debate among delegates. In a fast-paced, impassioned and often heated speech Jeanette urged local authority caterers to lose their 'negative' attitudes, before they lose the school meals service altogether.

"The school meal service has been hurting since the eighties. It's been in the spotlight for the last five years and it's not long enough," said Orrey, insisting that school meal caterers need much more time to put right all the wrongs. The school meals policy advisor explained how unlike in the eighties one menu does not fit all local authorities and that tastes are now differing from school to school.

She touched on how schools need to tackle their meals service with a business approach putting customer relations first, marketing their products and branding them in a way that completely engages the end user. "It's about creating a place where students want to be. Not where we have dining room environments with water running down the walls, plaster coming off the ceilings and pupils sitting at tables that used to be classroom desks," said Orrey clearly becoming more incensed at the string of bad practice examples. "And please don't tell me that this doesn't happen because I have seen it myself."

She appealed to headteachers to become interested in improving school meals noting that 250 letters were sent out to heads inviting them to a conference with just one reply. But the big talking point that animated delegates was her view of caterers and their attitudes towards the Nutrient Standards. She told attendees that they need to embrace change and stop turning to negativity: "Let's not hide behind a can't do attitude. Nine years ago I was told you can't put local, fresh or organic food on the menu. Well, we have done, we are doing so and numbers are up.

"If we don't stop being negative we are going to lose the school meals service. It's as simple as that. There are so many good things happening out there and so many local authorities are working hard but at this moment in time you are talking your service down."

She drew heckles from the audience suggesting that if local authority caterers had been listened to by the appropriate people there would have been no need for debates such as the LACA Summit. Delegates added that their concerns were serious and realistic.

One delegate was particularly angered by Orrey's comments: "The School Food Trust is not listening and has not taken on any of our concerns when they were raised at last year's LACA Conference. LACA are a very positive organisation and all of us here today want to promote schools meals and make them better."

The task ahead seems to encompass many issues such as addressing the eating habits of children, what children eat outside of the school gates including at home and changing how society as a whole perceives the school meal service. A positive mental attitude will help this along but as the delegates made clear, it is by no means the sole solution.