Council scraps hot meals in 70 schools

Thousands of children are to lose their only hot meal of the day following a council's decision to abolish school dinners.

From April next year, children at about 70 primary and secondary schools in Lincolnshire will have their lunchtime meals replaced by sandwiches.

There will also be snacks for them to choose from - such as pasta, fruit or soup.

The North East Lincolnshire council has 27,000 pupils on its register but this figure includes those at special schools, which will not be affected.

The British Nutrition Foundation said it was worried about the nutritional impact the move would have on the children.

Dietician Sarah Schenker said: "Some children will suffer more than others and they will be those whose meal at home in the evenings is very limited, whether that be because of a lack of finances or because of a lack of awareness.

"You could end up with children eating two sandwiches a day."

The present school dinners contract, held by Initial Catering Services, finishes on 6 April.

The Transport and General Workers' Union is worried that hundreds of dinner ladies, chefs and other kitchen staff will find themselves out of work.

The council said it had been forced to make the change by schools wanting to scrap hot meals because of the poor take-up.

The union is planning to ballot its members over possible industrial action.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 17-23 August 2000