Staffordshire County Catering Ban School Garden Vegetables from School Meals

Last post 26-09-2011 8:52 PM by geoff51. 9 replies.

• 14/09/2011 01:16 PM

  Jill Location: Staffordshire Joined on: 14 Sep 2011 Posts: 2

  Reply | Contact Our primary school has a very popular gardening club where the children grow vegetables. Up until now our cook has included their veg in the school meals, but has now received a letter from Staffordshire County Catering saying that the kitchen can only use produce supplied by themselves, which means she can’t cook the food from the gardening club.  Has anyone else come across this? Is this normal practice for school dinners? Thanks Jill Henry Prince School Gardening Club http://www.henryprince.staffs.sch.uk/activities.html

• 14/09/2011 09:44 PM	In reply to
  geoff51 Location: Totton, Hampshire Joined on: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 187	Reply | Contact It looks like the Jobsworth, Elf and Safety Gestapo on the council are trying to justify their massive pay. Kick up a bit of a fuss and get the local press and tv interested and they will back down Power to the gardener Geoff51 Pond life!?!

• 15/09/2011 08:38 AM

  In reply to

  alex-adam Location: Cleveland Joined on: 29 Jul 2011 Posts: 40

  Reply | Contact I agree with Geoff51 - kick up a fuss. I would have thought that one of the basic principles of the school garden club is to establish the link between growing and eating nutritious food, obviously Staffs Council are too short sighted and stupid to realise this. Of course it could be that some big-wig at the catering department also owns the local fruit & veg wholesaler - or am I being too cynical ?

• 15/09/2011 11:43 AM	In reply to
  Susiq Location: Northumberland Joined on: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 3,125	Reply | Contact Don't forget your local radio station too! I am fed up to the back teeth of this sort of negative interfering with things, that there was nothing wrong with in the first place. If anything, it was obviously really good for the children, to be 'hands on' gardening and then enjoying the produce of their labours, It couldn't be any fresher or healthier - it makes me sooo angry

• 15/09/2011 01:56 PM

  In reply to

  Phot's-Moll Location: The sunny South coast. Joined on: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 4,531

  Reply | Contact  I agree with those saying to make a fuss. Contact local papers and even the local TV channel. Using veg the kids have grown is good for their health and self seteem - plus it saves the council buying so much. (I know the cost saving will be small, but I doubt local people will want even a small part of their council tax wasted) Do the council want the kids to grow up thinking it's dangerous to eat fresh veg? Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.

• 17/09/2011 01:52 PM	In reply to
  alex-adam Location: Cleveland Joined on: 29 Jul 2011 Posts: 40	Reply | Contact Our Council takes a rather more enlightned view of 'home produced' fruit & vegetables - See this link http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/ccm/content/main-homepage-features/town-meal-2011.en

• 17/09/2011 06:56 PM

  In reply to

  sian Location: Joined on: 21 Jan 2008 Posts: 19

  Reply | Contact It's more than a little perverse, isn't it? I'd hazard a guess there are two possible explanations: 1. Somebody neither overly-imaginative nor too bright in the council's schools catering dept. imagining that there really is some kind of health risk inherent in a school cook using produce grown at the school. An appeal to reason, comon sense and a spot of adult education should do the trick in this case. 2. The schools catering service has been fully or partly privatised, and using school-grown produce is being perceived as an assault on profits. If this is the case, the best course would probably be to apply pressure on the council to examine the contract to see whether the cateres are really allowed to do this, and if they are to seek to persuade them to accept alteration of the contract. These things are usually up for renewal every few years, so they'd be reluctant to appear too pig-headed over something like this for fear of losing the business completely, imho. I would strongly suggest getting your local elected representatives involved in this, and not to stop making a fuss until things change: every comment made about this is spot on. Local councillors, county councillors, your MP. If the latter is the Stafford chap, he has a background in overseas development and eco issues, as I recall, so should be very sympathetic. Good luck.

• 18/09/2011 09:23 PM	In reply to
  Arrem Location: Staffordshire. UK Joined on: 12 Jul 2009 Posts: 243	Reply | Contact I have nothing to add to this thread other than my support for the original poster and my sincere hope that common sense prevails. There is no such thing as useless - you can always be a bad example.

• 26/09/2011 09:05 AM	In reply to
  Jill Location: Staffordshire Joined on: 14 Sep 2011 Posts: 2	Reply | Contact Thanks very much for all your comments. I'll let you know how we get on. In the meantime we have been selling the vegetables at the school gate and made up some harvest boxes for the harvest festival.

• 26/09/2011 08:52 PM	In reply to
  geoff51 Location: Totton, Hampshire Joined on: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 187	Reply | Contact I hope it all goes well for your school, the best thing that the pupils can learn is the origin of their food and it is not just from Tescos! Keep us all informed Geoff51 Pond life!?!