A survey by the BBC has revealed that healthy school meals are proving so unpopular with pupils that some school caterers are facing a financial squeeze as students vote with their feet and eat elsewhere or opt for packed lunches. The push to get better quality food onto school menus to improve the poor diet of millions of children has led to a drop in the number of pupils eating school dinners. The backlash against the so-called “Jamie Oliver effect” found that of 59 local education authorities, only 6 reported that more pupils were taking the healthier school meals compared to 35 reported numbers had. Continue Reading

Demands placed on school kitchens have changed dramatically over the years but the kitchen and its equipment has often remained virtually unchanged for decades. At the John Henry Newman Secondary Modern School in Stevenage they have been implementing a move to healthier school meals for the last 3 years, well before Jamie Oliver made it a national issue, from the limited resources of a kitchen designed in the Beatles era. Now with a little help from Bettaquip the school has facilities to match its ambitions.

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John Henry Newman Secondary Modern School in Stevenage was built in 1967 with a dining room designed to meet the needs of around 700 pupils. Bettaquip was given the task to upgrade the facilities into to match todays needs of 1350 pupils, with over 900 regularly taking lunch.

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It is 15 years since pupils at Bourton Meadow School in Buckingham last enjoyed freshly prepared food for lunch. Now today’s pupils can benefit from the experience.

“It was my ambition to reintroduce fresh food to the menu when I first came to the school”, explains head teacher Gill Race, “thanks to the publicity that Jamie Oliver has focused on the issue I now have the support of both parents and the LEA for the changes needed. The school now offers a choice of meals prepared on site using fresh ingredients delivered daily”. Continue Reading