Wokingham

Whilst some areas might be suffering from an adverse ‘Jamie Oliver’ effect, with the uptake of school meals decreasing, a growing number of Wokingham district’s pupils are enjoying fresh, healthy and tasty food thanks to the council’s successful new catering contract.

National headlines have been highlighting that the number of pupils choosing school dinners across the country has been in decline in recent months, pointing out Jamie Oliver’s television campaign as a reason. Yet Wokingham District Council has seen the take up of its school dinners increase by eight per cent since it introduced a new menu and new contract with Tunbridge Wells-based company Edwards & Ward.

Feedback had already suggested that Wokingham children were greatly enjoying the fresh, healthy and nutritionally balanced meals provided by the new contract since it began serving at the beginning of the September term. And monitoring of the meal take-up over the last three months has proved that it has really made a difference to the number of children choosing to have school dinners with the approximately 70,000 meals per month being served so far.

Cllr Rob Stanton, executive member for Wokingham corporate services, said: “We certainly haven’t suffered from the ‘Jamie effect’ in the Wokingham district. We thought when we negotiated the new contract that we made a good choice in catering provider Edwards and Ward and got a really good deal for the district’s school children. And now these recent figures show that, as well as enjoying the new menu, more pupils are choosing school dinners at lunchtime.

“A well-balanced nutritional meal goes a long way to increase attention levels in the classroom. So teachers are benefiting from this increased take-up as well as pupils themselves.”

Under the new contract arrangements, the council exceeds new government nutritional guidelines by providing fresh food that is cooked by the catering staff in 38 school kitchens across the district. Pupils are reaping the benefit of fresh meat, vegetables and organic produce from local suppliers across the south of England including Berkshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire.

“I’d like to extend my thanks to the catering staff for their hard work in making the new arrangements such a success. In light of recent headlines, I really think the increased take-up is a significant achievement,” said Cllr Stanton.

Wokingham District Council