Why Fife school meals budgets are ‘through the roof’  and what Fife Council might do

Now the local authority has been forced to look “very closely” at its school menus moving forward.

Nurseries have already reduced their menus from three to two choices, and scrutiny councillors were told last week that education services are reviewing menus for primary and secondary schools.

Tariq Ditta, head of facilities management services, told the environment, transportation and climate change committee that school catering is one of the biggest challenges facing the service.

Altogether, facilities management has gone more than £1 million over budget, about half of which is down to school catering.

Part of the problem is down to low food sales at high schools - Mr Ditta said that research from Beath and Lochgelly High Schools last year showed that pupils are no longer purchasing a full meal at lunchtime.

Food inflation has also gone “through the roof” and had an impact on council finances. Mr Ditta said: "Prices go up almost immediately, but take forever to come back down. We’ve got the challenge of increased inflation costs and we are looking very closely at our menu offerings.”

He said reduced are not only “better targeted” but emphasised that they also cut catering costs and food waste.

Fife Council has an obligation to serve school meals that meet certain nutritional requirements, but Mr Ditta said there is some leeway. For example, he said pasta meals cost about 9p per portion while a steak pie costs more than £1.30 per portion.

“Every one pence increase we have in food cost results in about £47,000 aggregate increase in food cost. Those are the challenges we face,” he said.

Going forward, Mr Ditta said his team will be looking closely at menu offerings, and encouraging more people to purchase meals at school. It has already had some success with increasing sales this year – up 14% from last year – but it will keep working to expand food options for morning breaks and other meal times.