Alan Pettigrew is generally impressed by the daily lunch options on offer to his son as part of the School Meals Scheme at St Patrick’s National School in Drumcondra, Dublin.
His son has been enjoying curry noodles and a healthier version of a spice bag. He likes pasta too, which the provider has started serving with tomato sauce.
“They don’t look like some of the ones that I’ve seen in the media over the last couple of days,” his wife, Clare Pettigrew, adds. “They’re tasty. They look nice. You’d eat them yourself.”
The School Meals Scheme, which is funded by the Department of Social Protection, is now available to about 3,700 schools and 682,000 children.
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Last month celebrity chef Darina Allen, who founded Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co Cork, told an Oireachtas committee that the programme must do “much better” when it comes to nutrition.
She said there were “very few” meal providers who “cook fresh, locally sourced food from scratch”.
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“The vast majority of providers do not have cooking facilities but assemble precooked, often ultra-processed components and reheat them in the packaging either in their own facilities, in transit, or on site at schools,” Allen said.
Others told the Oireachtas committee of concerns about the quality and nutritional value of the food, the one-size-fits-all approach to portion size, the procurement process for funding, menu fatigue for pupils, and food packaging waste.
Children’s charity Barnardos told the politicians that the families it works with were overwhelmingly in favour of the Government’s School Meals Scheme.
Due to poverty and parental adversities, the charity said not all of those children would have a hot meal each day were it not for the lunch programme.
St Patrick’s National School started facilitating hot school lunches in January of last year.
Speaking outside the school, Alan Pettigrew says the first year has been “good”, although it got off to “a bit of a rough start”.
“There were some issues with the app and stuff like that. But over the last eight or nine months, it’s been fine.” Via the app, his son “makes his own choices”, with about 10 or 12 meals to choose from each day.
“They got rid of some of the less healthy stuff after the first round,” Pettigrew says. “There were sausage rolls, or a sausage in a baguette, things like that which probably wouldn’t have great nutritional value.”
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“He wouldn’t be great for vegetables in general,” Pettigrew says of his son, adding that many of the meals do not contain the vegetables he likes.
“But to be fair, there’s a good bit of choice,” he adds.
The variety of options has not been as satisfactory for Muireann Kyeyune’s son, who she says has a very limited palate.
“There have been no issues with the portion size, but the only item on the hot lunches menu that appeals to him is meatballs and pasta,” she says.
“We’re still doing packed lunches on those days where there are no meatballs,” Kyeyune says. “I would say that the variety is not great. I do a lot of home cooking ... so we have to try and balance it out that way.
“The boys are really hungry at school and they need something, but I think there’s a little bit more of a way to go with some of the providers,” she adds.
St Patrick’s recently conducted a review of its meals scheme through surveys of pupils and parents.
John Daly, whose child also attends the school, says initial concerns about choice and portion size have been mitigated, and that most of the pupils “really love” the lunches.
Chicken curry and lasagne are common favourites, says Daly, adding that sometimes a pupil will eat more than one portion because a classmate does not want their hot lunch and has brought food from home.
“There was an issue with the containers,” he says. “Some people felt that they should be eco-friendly and all the rest of it. I think they did change that but then those containers weren’t keeping the food hot enough. I still think there’s a little bit of an issue around that, but the food itself is good.”
Eva Bennett’s youngest child attends Scoil an tSeachtar Laoch in Ballymun, which has not yet been able to introduce the School Meals Scheme due to space constraints. Bennett says she “would love to see hot food available to the children”, but she would be concerned about the quality of the food.
“I do really worry that some of the tenders that go out to the private companies that provide this hot food are just going to result in ultra-processed food,” she says. “High fat, high salt: just really bad quality food being sent out to the schools. That’s my big fear.”
Bennett thinks the meals programme would work best as a not-for-profit enterprise. She has heard from parents with children in other schools who say the food quality can vary.
“I’m definitely all for it if it’s nutritious and healthy,” she says. “I know it’s really hard to get it right because every school will have a different option.” She would not be in favour of “large private company supplying these meals en masse” as she believes the food would not be fresh.
Natasha Bassett, the principal of St Patrick’s, believes the project has been running well over its first year in the school. She says it is important to remember that the meals are optional for pupils.
“Some families really, really appreciate it,” Bassett says. “Others would prefer to send in their own lunch. Then, there are others who’ll be part of the scheme but maybe their children don’t like the options or there’s a bit of menu fatigue after a while.”
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“We have to remember that, while a lot of children in our school already came in with substantial, nutritious lunches, and we think and expect that they went home to a hot meal, there’s always some who don’t have that security. The good thing about the programme is that it supports them quietly and inclusively without highlighting anyone.”
A simpler menu model could improve choice for students and minimise the environmental impact, Bassett says. She thinks a sandwich and a bowl of soup could be prepared on site and served with a piece of fruit. This is a straightforward option that might use less packaging, she says.
“Where the pressure lands on a school is really on the administrative side,” Bassett says. “The procurement process took a lot of time. Things like checking compliance, looking at waste, keeping an eye on things. I don’t think that’s really sustainable for a principal whose role is teaching and learning.
Overall though, Bassett is positive about the programme, and thinks the intentions are “really good”.
“It’s definitely working well, but I do think there are ways that it could work better.”
