Fife School meals concerns

Fife Today

Beath High School students take their concerns about school meals to Holyrood.

Transcript

00:00 I sat down with five Beith High School students this week who have raised concerns about the

00:04 quantity, quality and pricing of Fife school meals.

00:07 They've raised it with the local area committee previously, but now they've gone all the

00:11 way to the Scottish Government.

00:13 A Holyrood representative met with them last week to talk about what they need to do to

00:17 create change locally.

00:19 Here's Inez Shearer, Kate Thayer, Emily Ingalls and Amy Annwender with more.

00:23 The concerns we started getting raised because people think us, like I had people from the

00:28 school, like friends and that, come and tell me.

00:30 And there was actually people from other schools in Fife that were coming to speak to me, just

00:34 like friends talking in general.

00:37 So I thought we'd take it to Mr Leray, who's a year ahead.

00:44 We wrote a letter then to whoever listened and Fife Council.

00:52 That led to a meeting with Councillor Rob, who came and spoke to us and started a meeting

00:57 with Fife Council and the Scottish Government.

01:01 The issues that we found, just to go into more depth, was that the prices, we didn't

01:07 understand how they were set, because a lot of us were getting charged different amounts

01:12 for the same things, depending on what day it was or who we went to to pay.

01:20 And we also found that a lot of us actually felt hungry after eating our lunch.

01:25 And that was one of the things that we just felt that we couldn't go on feeling like that,

01:29 because that's not right.

01:30 And I think we should also say that the cafeteria staff are really grateful for them, and they

01:39 do all that they can for us.

01:41 So we have nothing against the cafeteria staff.

01:45 It's just the way that the school meals are set up.

01:48 They do all they can for us and they're really helpful.

01:52 The Scottish Government really highlighted that it was out of their hands as well.

01:56 So it's like nothing to do with cafeteria.

01:57 The Scottish Government really highlighted that.

02:00 The Scottish Government representative came in and spoke with the students about the strict

02:03 legislation that binds local authorities when it comes to school meals.

02:08 It highlighted the further discussions the students need to have with Fife Council and

02:11 the direction that those conversations need to take.

02:14 I think what we need to think about now is how we're going to make these changes happen.

02:21 We've got a meeting with the head of service to reach from Fife Council after Easter holidays

02:27 when we come back to school.

02:28 So we can find out more about it then.

02:29 But it's been really good to speak with someone from the Scottish Government to find out what

02:36 exactly is the issue that is stopping us from making the changes that we want to make.

02:45 And then when we can bring that back to the head of service, hopefully we can come up

02:49 with a plan to get this in motion.

02:54 When you say that they've helped point you in the right direction of where you need to

02:57 go to make that change, where have they pointed you?

02:59 Is it the local authority?

03:01 Is it within the school?

03:02 Where is that coming down to?

03:03 It's the local authority.

03:04 I think most of it is down to the local authority.

03:05 All the questions we asked are pointed towards that.

03:06 She gave us answers on who we need to speak to, who we need to raise concerns to and how

03:19 we can get answers for it.

03:20 It just helped us with what we need to do.

03:21 Now that we understand the way that things are set, because we went into detail about

03:32 what the legislation actually is.

03:34 Legislation, nutrition, we went into detail about it.

03:37 So we understand why we can't have certain things and we totally get that.

03:42 But now, obviously, we can bring that back to Tariq and we can ask whether there's any

03:49 way to work with the legislation to create meals that we'll all enjoy.

03:54 I think what we should be going forward and doing is speaking about ways we can increase

03:59 the fullness feeling, like what things can we add in that there's no limit on.

04:04 Like leg tattles and seasoning that'll make it tasty and more filling.

04:10 Yeah, there is a limit on things like salt, but there's not on anything seasoning wise.

04:15 230 grams over a week for red processed meat.

04:20 Only 130 out of 230 can be processed red meat.

04:24 And then there's stuff like fish and at least 8 grams of fruit and vegetables over a course

04:33 of meals at our school.

04:35 So with sticking into these nutritional standards, still try to feel full.

04:42 Great.

04:43 Can I just ask you guys, why are you so passionate about this and why are you bringing this to

04:49 the council, to the government?

04:51 What's your motivation?

04:52 We're all there every day and it's something that we eat every day and our friends eat

04:57 every day.

04:58 And the cafeteria is busy.

05:01 It's really popular and loads of people go.

05:04 So I think the majority of us are in our last year and then Amy's still got a year.

05:11 So even if it doesn't benefit us, it'll benefit the people who are then to come on.

05:18 And the thing that we have in common with everyone in the school and everyone across

05:22 the city is that we're all school kids who need energy to learn.

05:25 So by us doing this, as Kate said, it'll help everyone, not just us.

05:31 So I think it's a good feeling, like helping the future kids that'll come up to high school

05:36 and helping the kids that are here now.

05:38 We're not asking for lots of stuff.

05:40 We're just asking for stuff that's nutritional and fills us up.

05:44 You're filled up after that, but then it wears off by the time you have the end of lunch.

05:50 So we're not asking for unreasonable things here.

05:54 We've looked into the nutritional standards, as we've spoken about.

05:58 We've got a better understanding of it.

06:01 And what we're just going to do now is how we're going to be able to make these things happen

06:05 while obviously following the legislation that's set.

06:08 The group has a meeting in the diary with Fife's head of service after the Easter holidays,

06:12 and a Fife-wide review of school meals will likely come to the council's Education Scrutiny Committee in September.

06:17 This has been Danielle Van Reenen, local democracy reporter for Fife.

06:21 Thanks for listening.

06:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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