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School Meals
About school
meals
Find out the facts about school meals in
Newham's schools...
Value for money
Newham school meals offer great value for money and on comparing
ourselves with other London Boroughs we have one of the lowest
prices for a comparable school meal.
The price of a two course hot meal in Newham is currently £1.60
for both primary and secondary aged children and young people. Most
schools offer non-cash payment options, but for further details
contact the school directly.
Newham Catering Services employ over 450 cooks and catering
assistants who prepare school meals. Every day 15,000 meals are
prepared cooked and served to primary pupils and 6,000 secondary
students.
Developments in provision of school meals in Newham
In addition to training our staff and the
introduction of the Traffic Light System to encourage our young
people to eat more healthily, the following improvements have been
made:
- Salad bars have been provided to 60% of Newham
schools
- Wider selection of salads provided
- Renewal of hot servery counters
- Provision of brightly coloured meal trays and beakers
- Provision of bright table cloths to enhance the dining
environment
- Upgrading of kitchen facilities
New Government standards for school meals
The Government has decided that new standards for
food other than lunch will come into force by September 2007,
although schools are recommended to adopt these from September
2006.
These new standards will means that:
- No confectionary will be sold in schools
- No bagged savoury snacks other than nuts and seeds (without
added salt and sugar) will be sold in schools
- A variety of fruit and vegetables should be available in all
school food outlets. These could include fresh, dried, frozen,
canned or juiced varieties
- Children and young people must have easy access at all times to
free, fresh drinking water in schools
This means that Newham Catering Services will be
providing a healthier range of snacks at midmorning break.Why not
use this as an opportunity to discourage your child from taking
taking bags of crisps or chocolate bars into school - saving these
for an occasional treat instead?
Secondary school menus have also been improved by removing the
'chips with everything' culture. The introduction of Lite Bites has
proven that young people are quite happy to eat more healthily if
the right food is supplied and they follow the high street
trends.
For more information you can
download the Government report here.
* Please note that Annex A in the report covers the new food
based standards for school lunches which comes in this
September.
Health and nutrition
All Newham school meals are nutritionally analysed by our Dietician
and comply with the Government New Nutritional Food Based Standards
that come into force this September.
Newham Catering Services who provide meals in the majority of
Newham Schools have a traffic lights system which colour codes meal
choices giving children and young people information on how healthy
their choices really are.
Facilities
Children and Young Peoples Services have a building works programme
to maintain and upgrade school kitchens. Many schools have new
servery counters and salad bars to ensure food is displayed
attractively.
Many schools have given their dining hall a make over with pupils
having a say in the colour scheme and creating their own food
posters.
More information
View our Improvements to School Meals
presentation. |