Labour Councillors in Cardiff have forced the Liberal Democrat Executive to give parents more saying what their children eat in school. Sophie submitted a notice of motion which called for a pre-ordering system to be set up so that parents can order what their children will be eating for their dinner and utilise on-line payment methods or direct debit. Her motion received unanimous support in the Council.
The call for parents to have a say in what their children are eating in school comes in light of nationwide concerns about children's eating habits and a City wide campaign led by Sophie and the Labour Group to force the Liberal Democrat Administration to put more money into school dinners.
Labour Councillors have previously revealed that the Administration will not put any of the increased cost to parents for school meals into the meal itself and that Cardiff spends one of the lowest amounts on school dinners in Wales.
Speaking about the motion Councillor Sophie Howe said:
"Parents want to know exactly what their children are eating in school and want to be able to operate the same control over their eating habits in school as they do at home. As a mum with a six year old in school I find it ridiculous that my son gets to choose himself whether he has vegetables or chips with his meal or whether he has a cake or an apple for dessert. I want to be able to ensure that he is having a balanced meal in school as I do at home and this is the same for parents across the City."
See below for text on Sophie's speech to the Council:
"Thank you Lord Mayor. I rise to propose this notice of motion which seeks to address the concerns of parents across Cardiff about what their children are eating at school. The issue of school meals has been the focus of media attention since Jamie Oliver programme highlighted the poor quality of school meals, the disgracefully low amount being spent on ingredients for school meals and the lack of training for school cooks.
Parents were horrified by the programme and many who may have previously paid for their children to have school dinners immediately withdrew their children preferring to provide packed lunches so that they could be sure that their children were eating a well balanced meal free from turkey twizzlers, processed chicken nuggets and spaghetti hoops. However, parents feel aggrieved that they have had to do this as many have expressed to me the fact that they want to feel confident that school dinners are providing a balanced meal because for example they would like their children to have a hot meal in the winter.
The Jamie Oliver effect has had a huge impact on the sale of school meals in Cardiff and I will concede that this is an unfair reflection upon the quality of meals in Cardiff. I know that she school catering service has worked hard to improve the quality of meals and have done a good job considering they are working with the smallest amount to spend on ingredients of any local authority in Wales - an issue which you will know I have been campaigning to change.
However whilst this is still and issue which the Administration should in my view address as a priority this notice of motion does not seek to raise this specifically but instead aims to bring about a set of circumstances where parents can exercise control over what their children are eating in school as they do at home.
The school dinner menus are published in the Capital times. Parents who read the Capital times are able to get some idea about what is on offer for their children's school dinner and it doesn't look bad. Unfortunately what we're told about the menu isn't always what ends up on our children's plate.
As a mother and as a Councillor who has a particular interest in this issue you can imagine that when my son came home and asked if he could have school dinners in the winter because his best friend was I took to scrutinising what was on the menu at my son's school before signing him up for them. I was fairly happy with what I saw but quickly became suspicious about what he was eating when my son began to profess how much he liked the school dinners and how he didn't want to change back to having a packed lunch in the summer.
My son is like most six year olds - give him a choice of something healthy or something I would describe as rubbish and if he had his way he's choose the rubbish. Yesterday when I asked him what he had for lunch he told me he had had a hotdog and chips. "Anything else" I asked, "No..." he replied "just a cake." - I was not happy but when I consulted the menu I was told that what was on offer was BBQ chicken or a hot dog with oven herby potatoes, savoury vegetable rice, coleslaw, sweetcorn salsa and garden salad. I would have been quite happy with that and I can tell you that if I was preparing this meal at home he would have had the salad he would have had the savoury rice; and call me a horrible mother, but he wouldn't have left the table until he finished it.
Actually my son and many other children don't mind eating these healthier options if they are told there is no option. And this is the whole point of this motion. To give primary school children as young as four a completely free choice on what they have for dinner is madness - most will of course choose the less healthy option - advertising for companies like MacDonalds, Bernard Matthews and others target children with fun filled adverts which encourage them to fill up on processed meat and chips and a parent's input is required to ensure that this isn't all they eat.
I am no different to thousands of parents out there who are alarmed when their children come home and tell them that over the period of a week they have had turkey drummer and spaghetti hoops, sausage role and potatoes, cod bites (fishfinger by another name) and potatoes and cheese wheels and chips. And this is a real school menu for a week. They are not the only things on the menu but they are what children can choose and do choose over the healthier option which are also available.
The effect of this motion would be to place the choice for school dinners in primary schools with parents, who could decide on a weekly basis, sit down with their children, and decide what they were going to have for their dinner that week. No doubt a bit of bartering would take place - well ok you have a cake for dessert on Monday but you're having an apple on Tuesday - but the overall effect of such a system would be that parents would feel more confident that their children are eating a balanced meal in school as they would do at home. The concept of paying for this at the same time or setting up a direct debit would also take the stress out of scrambling around in your purse when you're late for school on a Monday morning to find £7.50 for dinner money.
I am pleased that Councillor Kelloway is willing to accept the principle of this motion and I am willing to accept his amendment, although I would point out that the extension of the time limit for reporting back to the Council is being accepted in good faith and accepted on the basis that it will not be used as an excuse to bounce the issue into the 2008/9 budget rather than the 2007/8 budget if there are budgetary implications for this. The Labour Group and the parents of Cardiff will be holding you to account on this if this does happen.
Now I appreciate that there are a number of issues which need to be considered for example, the budget arrangements which currently exist with schools receiving payments for collection dinner money but I don believe that the Administration should investigate as a priority how dinner can be restored and the children of this city are ensured of a healthy nutritious meal to take them through the school day.
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