The Recession is Nibbling Away at Healthy School Meals

Strictly speaking, this is off subject, because it isn’t really about the development of the charity – but one item at the governors’ budget meeting at school earlier this evening made me so mad, I have to let off some steam! My excuse for doing it here is that it is quite closely related to the project which produced the first book and reinspired me to set up the charity. The book is all about healthy eating – so when we reached catering on tonight’s agenda, I naturally pricked up my ears. The school has made huge strides in my time as a governor (three and a half years). We’ve gone from buying in bog-standard junk food to providing balanced, nutritious – and tasty – lunches on-site. We’ve got the kids into the garden to grow their own veg, we’ve got them into the kitchen, often with their parents, to cook it – and of course, we’ve had them writing a book about everything they’ve learnt! Now, though, the whole project – which is absolutely on the button when it comes to national and local government policy – could be under threat. Someone commented that “We’re seeing a lot more Dads at the gates now, picking up their kids – because they’ve lost their jobs”. As a result, those families are having to tighten their belts when and wherever they can. In many cases, this is likely to include providing the little ones with relatively cheap packed lunches, rather than paying for school meals – and if enough fall into that category, the numbers just don’t stack up – we don’t know how long we can continue with the healthy eating drive. Some of the money comes out of our annual budget, but the rest has to come from kids’ “dinner money”. Our best hope is a proposed submission to the County Council, putting forward a plan for subsidized school meals. If it goes through, schools will be supported for the coming year – although that then begs the question: what happens the following year, when we have to put the prices up again? I can understand perfectly the position our parents find themselves in and the choices they have to make. I’ll be less understanding if the Council find they can’t back the subsidy plan. Yes, I know, public money is stretched as much as private money at the moment and we have to be extremely careful where we place it; but I see it this way: the recession is set to last a couple of years at most – and that’s a pessimistic estimate. The childhood obesity problem has implications for generations. Without a subsidy, if we find ourselves running out of money, our only option is likely to be to revert to inferior alternatives. We can’t afford for that to happen. This issue has been brought to the attention of the leader of the Council , so I hope he’ll push it hard. … I have to email his office on a completely unrelated matter tomorrow – maybe I should throw in my twopenceworth on this one … I reckon we could squeeze that out of the budget …!

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Tags: children; school; education; "healthy eating"; charity;