Please Don't Change Our Children's School Meals!!!

Stirling Council is proposing changes to the way primary school meals are provided, including moving away from meals prepared in our schools towards centrally produced and partly frozen meals. As parents, the most important question is simple: what will this actually mean for our children?

Every child is different. Some are fussy eaters, some are neurodivergent or have additional support needs, and for some children even small changes to texture, presentation or the way food is served can make the difference between eating their lunch and not eating at all.  Something as simple as gravy touching vegetables, different foods being mixed together, or a meal looking unfamiliar can be enough for a child to refuse it.  School meals need to be more than just nutritious on paper — they need to be food that children recognise, enjoy and will actually eat.

For some children, their school lunch may be the most reliable hot meal they have that day. That makes it even more important that any changes properly consider the children who rely on these meals, including those with allergies, additional needs or difficulties with food.  If children don't like or won't eat the meals provided, there is also a real concern that more food could end up being wasted. That matters not only because the proposed changes are being justified as a saving, but also because increased food waste would have an environmental impact.

This also raises questions about the wider environmental impact of moving food production away from our schools. Producing food elsewhere and transporting it into Stirling council  schools could involve additional transport, packaging, refrigeration and energy use. If more food is then thrown away because children won't eat it, that needs to be considered too. Parents should be given clear information about the full environmental impact before any decision is made.

We also need to look at what has happened in other areas that have moved to this type of school-meals system.  For example Dundee, Angus and Perth & Kinross use Tayside Contracts for school meals, and there have been concerns raised by parents and staff about food quality, presentation, portion sizes and whether children are actually eating the meals provided.

Dundee parent Lisa Blake has also publicly raised concerns about ingredients in some meals, including a cheese roll reported as containing 28 ingredients. These are concerns raised by an individual parent and do not, on their own, establish that food is unsafe, but they do show why parents need transparency about exactly what is being served to our children.

Then there are the staff who currently provide our children's meals. Stirling Council has referred to the equivalent of 43 full-time posts being affected, but because many school catering staff work part-time and term-time hours, that could potentially mean considerably more individual people. These staff do much more than prepare and serve food. They know the children, understand their needs and often know which children need encouragement, reassurance or extra support at lunchtime. If staffing levels are reduced, there is a concern that the remaining staff could be under greater pressure, with less time to support children, manage allergies and additional needs, and make sure meals are properly presented and served.

Parents should not have to wait until changes are made to find out whether our children will eat the new meals, whether food waste increases, whether staff are stretched, or whether the flexibility and personal support currently provided in our schools is lost.

School meals are not just another budget line. They are part of our children's day, and for some children they are something they genuinely rely on.

Parents should have a say in what happens to our children's meals. We are asking Stirling Council to listen to parents and put children's needs at the heart of this decision.

Please don't change our children's school meals without properly listening to the parents and children who depend on them.

If you are a Stirling parent who feels the same, please sign this petition and share it with other parents. The more parents who speak up, the clearer it becomes that our children's school meals matter and that parents deserve to be heard before any changes are made.