Responses to Multiple Choice Questions (Percentages)

3. If your child has school dinners can you tell us if you consider whether they are value for money. 
65% Yes
35% No
4. In line with national and local changes we are trying to provide a healthier school meals service. Do you support these changes? (1 strongly support, 2 moderately support, 3 don’t support) 
83%  1
12%  2
4%    3
5. How supportive do you feel your children are to these changes? (1 strongly support, 2 moderately support, 3 don’t support) 
53%  1
33%  2
14%  3
9. If we changed from a cafeteria system to a system where we offered set meals would you support this? 
63% Yes
37% No
10. The government is stating that there will be a requirement for healthy lunchboxes in school from September 2006. Do you agree that this should be the case? 
88% Yes
12%  No
14. If the school kitchen provided a healthy packed lunch option would your children choose this? 
73% Yes
27% No
15. If we offered toast or cereal for breakfast from 8:30 a.m. would your children choose to have this? 
62% Yes
38% No

A Summary of other Responses

• In response to question 8, ‘What sort of healthy meals would you or your children like to see on the menu?’ there were a selection of foods that were regularly mentioned; rice, pasta, roasts, fish, fruit, potatoes. A lot of these foods are now available on the menu as it has developed over the last few months. It seems that we haven’t let you know the content of the new menus regularly enough.

• All of the processed foods that were being used have now been completely phased out and are no longer part of the dinner menus. As a result of the questionnaire feedback Friday’s ‘Burger in the Bag’ has been removed.

• Fizzy drinks are not part of the drinks options for the children except for carbonated water.

• The issue of a vegetarian option was mentioned several times, the kitchen offers a vegetarian option every day.

• The question about the packed lunch options (question 11.) was not written as clearly as it could have been, for which I apologise. The responses were pretty clear though that the vast majority of you would not like to see chocolate, sweets or fizzy drinks as part of their children’s packed lunch.

• The majority of you would like to see us sell fruit or cereal bars at playtime instead of crisps.

Future Changes

As a result of your feedback we are proposing the following:

• To keep parents up to date of the dinner menus through letters or the school website

• To hold a meeting for parents early in the new year to look at food options for the children in the school and to consult further with parents about what is regarded as a healthy lunchbox for the children of St. Joseph’s

• To continue to improve the quality of the food offered to the children

• To begin from January a Primary set menu instead of a cafeteria system for a trial period

• To begin from January to offer from the school kitchen a packed lunch option for a trial period

• To begin from January to offer the option of a breakfast of toast or cereal served at school for a trial period

• To change what we sell children for playtime tuck to a healthier option during the course of this academic year

Thank you for your time and effort in responding to this questionnaire, it is obviously an area that many of you feel strongly about. It was difficult to try and condense all the responses into a 2 sided letter, but I hope that you feel that I have succeeded and that the proposed measures are appropriate for your children. If you have any concerns, issues or ideas about school meals, food in school or healthy eating please contact me so that we can discuss them. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 15/11/05; 11:29:21 AM to the Notices Admin Staff dept.
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