Aberdeen launches school meals probe

Aberdeenshire's school catering service is to be subjected to a major investigation by the council's internal watchdog.

Aberdeenshire Council's scrutiny and audit committee will take a close look at the catering service, which has been run in-house since 1995. It will gather evidence from catering staff, contractors, pupils, parents and teachers, and visit primary and secondary schools to sample what is on offer.

The school lunch service has failed to break even in recent years. It charges the second-highest prices in Scotland, at £1.70 per meal in secondary schools, according to a survey by public services union Unison last year.

Committee chair Councillor Martin Ford said there were considerable costs and constraints involved in providing for 178 often small schools spread across a 90 square mile rural area. The investigation will look at the take-up of meals, their healthiness, weather-related fluctuations in demand, and the service's financial losses.

The committee expects to finish gathering its evidence by Christmas and to draft its recommendations next March.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 25 September 2003