Scottish Parent Teacher Council

ONLY a third of city youngsters are choosing school meals despite a multi-million initiative to provide children with healthier food.

Latest figures from the Scottish Executive show that only East Lothian and Dundee have a lower uptake of school meals.

Meals in Edinburgh secondary schools are also the second most expensive in Scotland, costing parents Ł1.85 a day for a two-course meal. In Glasgow the price is just Ł1.10.

The low take-up figures have prompted fears that children are leaving schools at lunchtime to visit local chip shops and burger vans.

Parent and teacher representatives have called on city schools to provide healthier more appetising meals.

Tina Woolnough, of pressure group Parents in Partnership, said: "My experience of school dinners from a parent’s point of view is that they are neither appealing or healthy.

"One of the problems in Edinburgh in particular is that there are lots of other types of food available close to schools."

Ms Woolnough said that schools had a duty to ensure pupils had access to nutritious food and questioned whether children should be allowed to leave school grounds at lunch time.

She added: "I am not sure whether they would be able to stop pupils going elsewhere for food, but they certainly have a responsibility to make sure what is provided on site is healthy and nutritious."

Just 34 per cent of pupils at council secondary schools in the city take school meals, compared to a national average of 49 per cent. Only in East Lothian, where just under 34 per cent take school meals, and in Dundee, where 27 per cent eat school dinners, is uptake lower.

The figures come after the Scottish Executive awarded the city council Ł4.2 million to promote better diets among schoolchildren over a three-year period.

A spokeswoman for the city education department said today: "Students in Edinburgh will always have relatively easy access to a wide range of alternative options at mealtimes, so we expect uptake of school meals to be lower than for some other authorities.

"For those choosing to eat elsewhere we would actively encourage them to pick the healthy options as a habit, even out with school.

"The Hungry for Success strategy is about equipping students to make good lifestyle choices regarding exercise, food, fitness and health."

The spokeswoman said a number of initiatives were already under way, with new menus to be introduced in primary schools from August this year and in secondary schools from December 2006.

Judith Gillespie of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council said the quality of food was usually more important than the cost.

She said: "When the concept of competitive tendering was introduced, the quality of meals went down the tube.

"That to a large extent undermined the provision of decent food and it’s not surprising that kids didn’t want to go and eat a meal where spaghetti hoops were classed as a vegetable."

The city’s Conservative group leader, Iain Whyte,

said: "It’s the nature of choice in the city that teenagers, who are very proactive consumers, will make their own decision about where and what they eat, especially where parents allow them the funds to do so."

Pupils fail to swallow healthy eating advice