News

East Lothian Council has responded to a flurry of queries from school caterers about the cost of ingredients for its meals, which were quoted as £3.30 in Channel 4’s Dispatches programme aired on September 10th.

Council communications officer Pauline Bristow has said the £3.30 figure quoted on the programme was the total cost to the council for each primary school meal, including overheads such as staffing and transport.

She said: “The figures we would have given, had we been asked for a specific food-only cost, are 94p on average for a primary school meal and 90p on average for a secondary school meal. Which, you’ll see right away, brings us much more in line with other local authorities.”

Titled ‘The School Dinner Scandal’, the programme claimed it surveyed 190 local authorities and 108 academies to find out how much was being spent on school dinners.

Dispatches reporter Tazeen Ahmad said the survey showed wide variation in the amount spent on ingredients, from East Lothian’s “massive £3.30 a meal” to the lowest, which was Pembrokeshire at 53p.

The figures have caused no little interest among LACA members, with a number tweeting to query the East Lothian figure.