Fife pupils take school meal concerns to Holyrood

Sixth year students Ines Shearer, Hannah Malone, Kate Dair, and Emily Inglis plus fifth year campaigner Aimee Anwender say that many pupils – themselves included – feel hungry after eating school lunches.

They have concerns about the quantity, quality and pricing of school lunches, and they have now taken their concerns about Fife school meals all the way to Holyrood.

“We’re not asking for loads of stuff, we’re just asking for a lunch that’s nutritional and fills us up,” Ms Anwender said.

“The issues we found were that the prices – we didn’t understand how they were set. A lot of us were getting charged different amounts for the same things depending on what day it was or who we went to to pay. And we also found a lot of us actually felt hungry after eating our lunch and that was one of the things we just felt like we couldn’t go on feeling like that because that’s not right.”

The quintet sat down with a representative from the Scottish Government last week to discuss the issues and legislation at play. It gave the campaigners a fresh perspective and a clearer direction to take their concerns forward.

Ms Inglis said that the issues and the impetus for change all point back to Fife Council, but emphasised that it’s more complicated than it appears.

The council, Ms Shearer explained, is bound by strict legislation that limits the amount of things like salt, red meat, and fried foods that students are allowed to have each week – and they must comply with the legislation while also bearing costs in mind.

“What we need to think about now is how we’re going to make these changes happen,” Ms Anwender said.

“It’s been really good to speak with someone from the Scottish Government to find out what exactly is stopping us from making the changes we want to make, and we can bring that back to Fife’s head of service – and we can ask whether there’s any way to work with the legislation to create meals we will all enjoy.” ”

Ms Inglis added: “It’s about sticking to the standards and trying to feel full.”

The quintet is looking at what things they can add to the lunch menu that there’s no limit on – filling things like lentils and seasonings to improve taste.

They will bring more detailed ideas and suggestions to their meeting with Tariq Ditta, head of Fife’s facilities management service after the holidays.

However, the group emphasised that they’re really grateful for the cafeteria staff and all they do.

“We have nothing against the cafeteria staff, it’s just the way that the school meals are set up. The staff do all they can for us and they’re really helpful,” Ms Anwender said.

It’s not the first time this group of Beath High students have raised their concerns about school meals. Last month, they successfully petitioned the Cowdenbeath Area Committee to undertake a Fife-wide review of school meals.

Education Scrutiny convener Kathleen Leslie anticipates that that report will come to her committee in September of this year.

“I’m happy for us to do that – we need a better understanding of what the issues are here,” she said.

“If kids are still hungry after lunch, we need to be asking why. And if school meals are not making kids feel full, we obviously need to change things in a way that doesn’t impact costs a great deal more.”

She continued: “We’ve only seen this issue raised in Cowdenbeath so far, but that doesn’t mean there’s not issues at other schools.”

The Fife-wide school meals review is likely to come to the scrutiny committee in September, and Cllr Leslie said she’s keen to hear from students in other parts of Fife as well so that councillors can fully understand the scope of the issue.