National School Meals Week

A ROAST lamb dinner with all the trimmings is being served to Carmarthenshire school children as part of National School Meals Week this week (November 4-8).

Vegetarian pupils can look forward to a baked bean burger, and everyone will tuck in to carrot cake and fruit juice for dessert.

As well as being a special treat for children who normally enjoy school meals, it is hoped that the event will encourage more children to try a school meal.

National School Meals Week – which has been running since 1993 – encourages pupils in primary and secondary schools to enjoy a healthy school meal that meets the nutrient standards.

Carmarthenshire County Council’s catering division use a special nutritional analysis system called Saffron to develop a healthy school meal menus and one of the main priorities is to increase the uptake of fruit and vegetables.

Catering Services Manager, Sandra Weigel, said: “School meals compare better in terms of both nutritional and financial value. With the price of shopping going up, packed lunches are not only becoming more expensive, but very often they do not provide enough nutritional value which children need in order to concentrate in the classroom and to help them lead a healthy lifestyle.”

The Catering Service is part of Carmarthenshire County Council, providing healthy two-course meals to 126 schools every day.

Executive Board Member for Children’s Services, Cllr Keith Davies, said: “National School Meals Week is a wonderful platform to promote all that is good about school meals. The traditional roast is still one of the most popular school meals, and I’m pleased that it has been chosen for the National School Meals Week celebrations.”