Parents launch school dinners protest

More than 250 parents have signed to a campaign to improve school food.

Merton Parents for Better Food in School are refusing to accept the quality of meals provided by Scolarest, the largest commercial schools caterer in England.

Now they have forced Scolarest bosses to meet them to discuss their fears about what is being served to children.

Yesterday, the Evening Standard revealed that council inspectors in Camden found " appalling" hygiene and food past its sell-by date being used in school kitchens run by the same firm.

Parents are particularly concerned that six Merton schools are locked into 25-year catering contracts after being rebuilt under Labour's flagship Private Finance Initiative.

The contracts have to be reviewed every five years but campaign chairman Chris Larkman, a parent-governor of Rutlish School in Merton Park, said alarm bells rang when he saw the school's new kitchen being fitted with deep-fat fryers.

Mr Larkman said: "We are happy to work with the company involved at the moment but we've got concerns as to whether in the long term the contractual arrangements will actually produce the goods."

Inspired by the campaign by TV chef Jamie Oliver, the support for the campaign is growing. More than 500 parents queued to sign a petition calling for healthier meals in a few hours in Wimbledon's main shopping area.

Mr Larkman said: "What we are asking for is fresh food, freshly prepared on site for our children and none of the pre-packed stuff they are getting at the moment." It is not only secondary school meals that are giving parents cause for concern. They are suspicious of Merton council's motives in getting primary school pupils to fill in a "very crude" questionnaire on what they would like to eat for lunch.

Merton primaries have a different catering company, Initial, and are not part of the 25-year PFI contracts. One parent, sociologist Joanne Sibthorpe, has written to council leader Andrew Judge to stress that parents should be told exactly what the survey is intended to prove.

She said: "The use of the results could be key to how school meals are developed.

"It could also be used for commercial or political gain - for example, the council saying something along the lines of 'But the children like the food, they would like more pizza and they don't want bits on top and the caterers are responding to this'.

"Children do not know that they are eating the cheapest ingredients and are hardly likely to ask for pizzas and so on with more nutritional value as a specific request."

Ms Sibthorpe said that her own children took packed lunches to school because they refused to eat the "disgusting" food served in the dinner hall.

Mr Larkman admitted that it was a "downside" that most of the campaign's members so far were "vocal middle-class people".

He stressed that they were looking to involve more parents from poorer families as the quality of school food was important to everyone, regardless of their social background. He urged supporters to join by registering at www.mertonparents.co.uk.

Scolarest was unavailable for comment.