The Big Interview COLIN MCINTOSH, HEAD OF SCHOOL MEALS, READING BOROUGH COUNCIL


One of Colin’s first jobs was to ban flight trays and give pupils proper crockery and cutlery


A primary school pupil tucks into her vegetables


school but you then look at their home situation,” he says. “A child came in after half term once and said he was so happy to be back because he gets something to eat. And in your mind you think ‘that’s just not possible’, but you hear it so often.” “I want in the summer for schools or community centres to be open where families can come to eat. Because we abandon them. We say ‘thanks very much, see you in six weeks’, and that to me is morally wrong. It’s not the council’s fault or anyone’s fault, there’s a lack of recognition that these children go without in the holidays. We need somewhere families can go to.” Working in partnership is something that Colin is also keen to reinforce. With Berkshire West PCT, Colin helped to set up School Nutrition Action Groups (SNAGs) in 30


12 June 2013


Happy customers tucking into their lunch in a Reading primary school


primaries in Reading and the council works closely with the NHS to work together to promote school meals. Nurses and GP surgeries even provided information on International School Meals Day. Colin’s work with SNAGs is what led to him being invited to the School Nutrition Association’s national conference in Las Vegas, to present to US delegates about the system in Reading. “The amount of people who came up and were just amazed by what we did with nutrition groups,” he says of the stand they had.


While funding has stopped for these


groups, they are still going strong in schools thanks to the dedication of parents and governors. “It’s great to think that we can start something off and step back.” Colin recognises the huge steps the


council and wider industry has taken to improve school meals in recent years, but is also fearful of the challenges that lie ahead: namely funding and price increases. “You’ll never match a healthy packed lunch versus a school meal on price. Parents see the value of a school meal, but when you reach £2 and above, especially when you have more than one child, it gets expensive,” Colin explains,


suggesting that national subsidies for meals is the way forward.


It seems that Colin will never stop campaigning for better school meals, especially when he is disheartened by some of the extreme poverty he comes across in Reading.


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