On Monday the Richmond school meals working party visited Merton. Merton is famous for transforming school meals after a long and committed campaign by Merton Parentsled by the intrepid campaigner, Jackie Schneider.
School meals in Merton are supplied by ISS Caterhouse who have achieve Food for Life Bronze for their menu. Their milk and eggs are organic and all meat is Red Tractor. The price to parents is still only £1.90. We visited Poplar and Joseph Hood. Both served the same delicious chilli with fresh broccoli which still had texture and colour.
We're often told that Merton has achieved this level of service only by heavily investing in school kitchens. Merton have indeed committed to upgrading all the primary school kitchens, but some kitchens are still tiny and still producing excellent food. The ladies at Joseph Hood cook in a very small space which also houses the mobile servery which is wheeled out into the school hall at lunchtime. It's an example of great partnership working between caterer and council.
We also enjoyed seeing the menus clearly displayed to help the children make their choice but it's a little frustrating to see the odd plastic prison tray! Some schools believe that reception children can't manage a plate and bowl ...
The Merton school meal service has definitely given us some great ideas and inspired us to keep soldering on in Richmond.
Why on earth are Joseph Hood STILL eating off trays? Merton have enough plates and bowls for every school to have. There is no cost involved. The vast majority of children I have spoken with much prefer plates. Thanks for this Stephanie
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