SUNDAY TIMES BETTER SCHOOL MEALS CAMPAIGN
Ben touches on a point here that might actually be a useful tool for caterers. That the national newspaper can focus on the parents rather than the children. “Parents have memories of their own experiences and that it’s still like that, but it’s not like that any more,” says Sian Griffi ths, education editor at the Sunday Times, in a video available to view on the campaign website. However, one argument that was raised with me by a school catering manager was that the Sunday Times was not the right publication for this type of campaign; that the parents reading the Times were the ones already paying for their child to have a school lunch.
While this can certainly be true to some extent, John Vincent told me that there are opportunities coming up in the future with other newspapers, including The Sun, which will help to expand readership and awareness of the issue. Talking about the Sunday Times campaign, he said: “We want more parents to give their children school food. It is almost always more nutritious than a packed lunch and the more people who choose school dinners the more money there will be in the system to make school dinners better for all children.
“The Sunday Times’ Better School Meals Campaign has been fantastic because it has focused on what is working well. It has been very positive, which is almost unheard
of for a newspaper campaign.” One major part of the campaign when
it fi rst launched was to run a competition asking children to review their school meals. Three hundred pupils took part, and encouragingly it was largely positive. More than 40% of children gave their school meals the top mark of four, and half the parents surveyed were broadly happy with their children’s lunches. However, 20% of the children who took part in the poll did admit their school meals were not up to scratch and similarly, one- fi fth said their school meals were not as healthy as they could be.
The winner of the competition was
10-year-old Matthew Saywell. He attends Brightlingsea Junior School, near Colchester, Essex, and loves his school meals, although his favourite is sausages and mash.
“I like it so much because the sausages are cooked just right and taste really, really nice,” he wrote. “The mash is just right too, not too hard and not too soft. You can also have peas, green beans, gravy and there is a salad bar containing lots of yummy vegetables. I just love biting into a sausage and getting a MAGNIFICENT taste.” The Sunday Times campaign is largely promoting the good food produced by school caterers and by working together towards the same goal, that fi fth of unsatisfi ed customers could well be converted.
Profile
Jessica Owen, 8, The Elms, Long Eaton
“It has been very positive, which is almost unheard of for a
newspaper campaign”
I am not too keen on our school’s chickpea curry because I do not like the chickpeas and the sauce has a very strong fl avour. I think they could improve it by taking out the chickpeas and put broccoli and carrots in instead. They could also use less spices to make it not so strong. The chocolate donuts are very unhealthy and the mixture is not very nice with chocolate. I think that sometimes the dinner ladies do not give equal amounts to everyone so sometimes you get small portions and the next person gets a bigger one.
Caitlin Everton, 9, The Coombes C of E Primary
On 25th April I had a school
dinner. It was delicious. I had a minced beef enchilada for my main and for dessert I had a apricot fl apjack made of sticky honey oats. On the side I had a bit of buttered brown bread, and for my veg/salad I had coleslaw and sweetcorn. I think I would give the meal 9/10 because the enchilada top was meant to be crisp and cheesy yet it was soft and cheesy. If the top of the enchilada was crisp and cheesy, then the meal would be 10/10. The meal service was perfect because the servers were quick, and so children didn’t get held up in the queue. The presentation was very good and the food was set out nicely. But what won it for me was what the food made me feel like. I felt like I really was in Mexico, eating my beef enchilada after hearding horses into their stables. I felt like after a hard morning of work I could just chillax and eat my lunch. THAT is what a real school dinner should be like. My apricot fl apjack was sweet and soft. It melted in my mouth like butter. When I was eating it I felt like I was in a meadow of fl owers having a picnic in a fl owing white dress. THAT is what made it so perfect. All in all it was a wonderful meal!
Have your say about the Sunday Times Better School Meals campaign by tweeting @EDUcateringmag June 2013 23
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