I work for one of the major catering contractors for school foods. Its just one element of our business, but a reasonably large one.
Did all of you know that we are paid by the government just 33p per day for a school child, yet prisoners are allocated 57p by the government.???
The suppliers always get a pasting in the press regarding school food and its lack of goodness, but believe me if you see what I do, the supply chain providers and the catering companies really do try and make a lot of the school food as good for you as possible.
We have spent millions trying to source organic growers, ethnically correct labour, non expoited labour etc for all of our frruit and veg supply chain. Its not cheap to give the kids decent wholesome food. The government seems to think it is though.
At the end of the day, the less money per head, the worse the food will become.
Another great example of this is chicken. We cant purchase it in the uk, as its too expensive. So you import it. (no problem there). But with chicken flu, prices have sky rocketed lately. The government still expects us to provide decent wholesome food including chicken, when its doubled in price. We just cant win either way. So the quality drops, an audit is carried out, maybe its not as good as it could be and our share price drops through the floor. All through factors we cannot affect.
We want to provide better healthier food, and believe me we are trying to, but what could you do for 33p a day?
rant over!
jamies school dinners
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pierre wrote:
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