Parents Survey Results

In February, SFM produced a school meals survey for parents.  The link to the survey was sent out to the 37 schools in the borough contract and although we have only received responses from parents at 10 of those schools, we still attracted nearly 600 responses!  This shows that there is lots of interest in school meals and there appears to be a real movement for change.

You can see a summary of the survey results here, but here are some key findings:

• 'Not being able to sit with friends having packed lunch' remains a key reason for children choosing a packed lunch.

• Majority of parents seemed happy with the meal price of £2.20, but not for the current offer.  However, parents with several children at school thought the price prohibitive and suggested that a sibling discount would be an incentive.  

• 61% of parents requested weekly menus and 53% requested information about food quality and sourcing. 

• Parents sited 'nutritional balance', 'food quality and sourcing' and 'availability of healthy food' as equally important when deciding whether to opt for school meals. 

• 'Meals cooked from fresh' was by far the most popular change to the service requested by parents, followed by information about food quality and sourcing. 

• Within the comments, 'child's preference' came out top for the reason why they chose a packed lunch.
  

Parents were also asked to find out their child's favourite and least favourite meal - not too many surprises here:

• Favourite main courses in order of preference:  Pizza, Pasta, Roast
• Favourite puddings in order of preference:  Chocolate pudding, icecream, jelly

Sweet and sour chicken got the big thumbs down from children so too did 'school custard'.

Survey findings were presented to the school meals working party last Wednesday and will be taken into consideration when planning for the next contract.  SFM has recommended:

• That we urge schools to allow packed lunch and school meals children to sit together

• That both schools and the LA have a dedicated school meals webpage with detailed menus and a link to the caterer.  Also detailed information about the mandatory school meal standards already in place

• That the LA highlights the kitchen improvements made to facilitate cook fresh and were facilities do not allow cook fresh, we investigate ways of supplying freshly cooked meals from an outside kitchen

• That we include children when marketing the new service through assemblies, school council, SNAGs, tasting sessions to address the 'child's preference' reason for choosing packed lunch.

The survey remains open so that we can continue to gather information ahead of the new contract starting 2011.  If you have friends at your school, or other schools in the borough contract, please send them this link.