School meals 'task force' created

Uptake has fallen since healthy menus were introduced

A special task force is being created to persuade pupils in south east Scotland to take school meals.

Uptake in secondary schools in the Borders has fallen by 20% since new healthy menus were introduced.

Scottish Borders Council was told that figures for primary schools had also dropped after the conclusion of a free meals pilot which ended in June.

It has now set up a five member working group to investigate the issue and encourage pupils to take school meals.

The Scottish Borders was one of the parts of Scotland which took part in a pilot programme of free school meals in primaries.

Legislation has since been passed which will see the scheme for primary one to three pupils extended to the rest of the country.

Council education spokeswoman Catriona Bhatia said the authority needed to look closely at the recent drop in popularity of school meals.

"Food should be part and parcel of education and not just an adjunct to it," she said.

"I think it is a cultural thing - if you look at the pilot of free school meals in primary one to three we got 65% uptake.

"But that means 35% of pupils who were entitled did not take something that was on offer for free."

Best practice

She said there was a need to tackle the "general attitude" to food.

Ms Bhatia said that in other countries eating appeared to have a more respected and social role.

"This is something which has concerned me for quite some time so I am really encouraged that we are going to set up this task force," she said.

"We can look at best practice in other areas of Scotland and maybe even from other countries where perhaps they have a much higher uptake of school meals and see where it is we are going wrong and how we can improve."

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