This
article has been provided by Gateshead Council and describes the
way in which they
have been working to gain the confidence of parents in the quality
of the school meals
provided to their children.
During
October, over one thousand parents went back to school to find
out what school meals are like for children in Gateshead.
Gateshead
Council school meals service offered parents the opportunity to
try the food available in schools in a bid to encourage more parents
to choose a school meal for their child.
During
three days, over 1200 parents sat down for a school dinner to
try for themselves the kind of food that is on offer every day.
In
over 50 schools, parents chose from a range of home made meals
and healthy options including roast pork with Yorkshire pudding
and macaroni cheese with salad bowls, fresh fruit and sandwiches
also on offer.
Members
of Gateshead Council's school meals service - who provide school
meals to over 80 primary schools in Gateshead - were also on hand
to answer any questions.
The
visits were the result of research carried out by Gateshead Council's
school meals service which revealed parents were unclear about
the kind of food on offer to their children. Many believed that
school meals everywhere were like those portrayed on Jamie Oliver's
programme School Dinners, which has since led to a decline in
the number of children staying for a school meal in Gateshead.
Councillor
Catherine Donovan, cabinet member for children and young people
at Gateshead Council, said, "It's vital that, from an early
age, children are educated to eat a healthy, balanced diet and
development good eating habits that they are able to carry on
into later life.
"The
excellent school meals we provide supports the work all schools
are doing to encourage children to be more health conscious and
includes free fruit in schools, water in classrooms to aid concentration
and our Healthy School Award scheme.
"We've
had a fantastic response from parents and the lunch visits across
the borough have been a great success. By giving parents the chance
to come into school and taste the food they can see for themselves
what is on the menu and that we are serving good quality, well
balanced meals in Gateshead schools."
At
Dunston Community Primary School 70 parents sat down to a school
dinner over the three days.
Headteacher
Bill Foreman at Dunston Hill Community Primary School, said, "We
were delighted to see so many of our school community accepting
our invitation to join us for lunch this week. The school catering
team served up the normal nutritional menu each day and parents
were able to see for themselves the quality of service on offer.
We believe that this initiative has been a success in reassuring
parents that school meals here in Dunston, and Gateshead in general,
are of the highest 
order
and provide children with a varied and balanced choice of healthy
options. The commitment of our catering team, and Gateshead Council
school meals service, should be commended for striving to offer
our children the very best."
Mrs
Clarke attending the food sampling event to find out what her
seven year old daughter Lindsey gets for her school dinner. She
said, "I certainly can't remember a choice like this at my
school. I really enjoyed the meal today. It's been useful because
after Jamie Oliver's programme. Mums and dads talked about it
a lot in the yard but this gives all of us the chance to try it
ourselves and I think everyone's been reassured. I'm really impressed.
My daughter has a school meal two to three times a week. She likes
salad, vegetables and cooked meals at home and I've always known
that there was plenty of variety at the school for her to get
something she likes."
Pauline
Selby's seven-year-old son Matthew also goes to Dunston Hill Community
Primary School. She said, "I like to give Matthew a cooked
meal every day so it's put my mind at ease today to see that the
school meals are healthy. Matthew's always said that he likes
his school dinners but the Jamie Oliver programme made me wonder
about what he was being fed. Today I've had the chance to see
for myself - I enjoyed the food and I was pleased to see that
there was plenty of fruit and vegetables on the menu."
Unit
Manager at Dunston Hill Community Primary School, Joanne Bainbridge,
said, "Our catering team works hard to really encourage the
children to choose the healthy options. We use fresh meat and
veg every day - even the chocolate muffins have pieces of banana
blended into them."
