LATEST
21st May 2008.
Front page article in Guardian Society
There's an excellent article in the Society section of today's (national) Guardian. It's about Jackie, and summarises our campaign so far as well as talking about our plans for Secondaries. See the online version of the article here.
May 2008.
Major Secondary Schools Campaign launched
After our success in bringing about improvements in the catering arrangements for Merton's Primary Schools, we have now set our sights on the Secondary Schools. This is potentially quite a challenge as 4 are tied into long PFI catering contracts and 4 are independently run Academies. However, there's a huge amount that needs to be (and CAN be) done to improve the food and the logistics of lunchtimes. We need your support to see it through. Please see our Aims and Objectives for Secondary Schools.
If you're a concerned student, parent, member of staff, governor or caterer from any of the schools in Merton, please get in touch.
16th October 2007.
Conference a huge success
Merton Parents organisied a National parents conference in North London, which brought together people from all over the country to discuss the work that still needs to be done to improve school meals. Delegates including Ed Balls (Secretary of State), Prue Leith (School Food Trust) and Zac Goldsmith (PPC Richmond, currently campaigning to improve school meals) were hugely positive about the event. They were all also very complimentary about the work of Merton Parents. A number of people went away inspired to start similar campaigns to ours.
4th September 2007.
New Contractor starts work
The new catering contrator - Caterhouse - has started work today, providing meals for virtually all the primary schools and Special Schools in Merton. We wish them luck! Parents may be concerned that the meals are somewhat basic at the moment. We are assured this is a temporary measure while the staff are undergoing training. Towards the end of the year we should see some more ambitious menus.
3rd September 2007.
Guardian Website debate
With news this week that the numbers of pupils taking school meals are down (how do they know this before the term has even started!?!) Jackie has written a piece on the Guardian website. As you'd expect a lively debate has ensued
20th April 2007.
Jackie gives a speech at Downing Street!
Jackie Schneider, Chair of Merton Parents, was at a Sheila McKechnie Award reception at 11 Downing Street on Wednesday. If you click here and then click on the video link you'll see a 2 minute clip of her speech. Look who's standing listening to her....
28th March 2007.
AGM.
Merton Parents marked the beginning of its 3rd year of campaigning with an AGM. There was a good turnout to hear the latest news of the campaign and our plans for targetting Secondary Schools. Representatives from Which were there to tell us of their campaign to stop junk food advertising to children. Some of the tactics used by many of the manufacturers were shocking. You can see more about this at www.which.co.uk/kidsfood
January 2007.
Initial changes its name. 
We note that Initial Catering have now rebranded their schools catering arm as "Eden". See the Initial website here. We don't see what was wrong with the old "Initial-Rentokil" name! Seriously though, we hope that the name change will bring with it further improvements in food quality and delivery.
9th November 2006.
INCREASE in numbers eating school meals. Despite stories in the media suggesting the opposite trend nationally, the number of primary school children in Merton eating school meals in October 06 had increased by 15% compared to one year earlier. This is clearly due to the improvement in quality that Merton Parents fought for, and indicates that numbers could rise even further under the new 2007 contract (see below) when quality will be further improved.
25th September 2006.
School Food Trust - please don't alienate. Angus, from Merton Parents has written to The School Food Trust expressing concern that their current campaign for healthy Packed Lunches is in danger of alienating the majority of parents, by being too draconian. Surely a small chocolate biscuit is acceptable in a packed lunch as long as it's part of a balanced meal?
1st September 2006.
School Food Trust standards. The School Food Trust has issued guidelines for standards in food, which schools are required to adhere to from this month. See details on the SFT website here, and read our press release in response here.
19th May 2006.
Junk food removed from all schools. See the article on the BBC website or the DFES press release for details. While we perhaps can't take all the credit for this excellent move forward nationally(!), we should recognise that campaigns like ours are adding tremendous weight to the debate.
28th April 2006.
Headteachers School Meal Development Day. Members of the Merton Parents committee were part of an all day meeting hosted by Jan Martin (Merton Head of Education) and attended by the Headteachers of around 50% of the local Primary Schools. See more details here.
28th March 2006.
Congratulations to Jackie Schneider who has WON a prestigious Sheila McKechnie award for emerging campaigners! See details of the award and the winners here.
March 2006. School Meal Survey. You may recall the school meal survey filled in by Primary parents at the end of last year. We finally have a full copy of the results. You can view it as a webpage or download a pdf here. The top 5 issues raised were: more fresh fruit and veg; fresh food to be prepared at every school; provide menu for parents; bigger portions; parents are prepared to pay more for better quality ingredients. There were 1,479 forms returned.
There's loads happening behind the scenes with our campaign all the time. For an up to date Progress History please click here.
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Here's a pic of over 100 parents and children, along with Roger Casale (former Wimbledon MP) who came along to Merton Civic Centre on 29th April 2005. This was an amazing turnout, especially because it was at such short notice, on a friday evening and at tea time! SEE MORE PICTURES HERE.
Articles of interest
Ever wondered why secondary schools are less keen to improve their food? Could this Mail on Sunday article (29th May) give the explanation?
Horrifying news report about childhood obesity BBC News 29th April. Also childhood diabetese BBC News 19th April. The final quotes in both reports say it all.
Excellent "Junk the Junk" article from The Guardian
Compare the price of school meals around the country vs the % of children eating them. The Guardian - 24th March 05.
Look particularly at the 'Food for Life' schools near the bottom of the list.
For links to more articles about school meals nationally, PLEASE GO HERE.
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Come to our AGM on 21st May!
Merton Parents 3rd Annual AGM on Weds 21st May 2008
at Rutlish School, Watery Lane, Merton Park, SW20 9AD
from 7.30pm - 9.00pm.
Guest Speaker Prue Leith
(chair of the School Food Trust,
renowned cook and best-selling author)
New kitchens, revised contracts and better quality ingredients have
led to dramatic improvements in primary school food in Merton.
Now we want to focus on improvements in the borough's secondary
schools. This is your chance to have your say about what type of
school food service our young people deserve.
If you are a school student, a parent, a caterer, a teacher or a health
professional we want to hear your views.
We will also be joined by Stephen Hammond (MP, Wimbledon), Dave Hill (Merton Director Parents, Families and Schools), Managing Director of Caterhouse (the new Primary School catering contractor), Representative of Scholarest (Caterer in several of the borough's secondary schools) as well as various members of Merton Council.
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| Are you a parent in the UK who's concerned about school meals?
Did you know that the majority of secondary schools don't have NEARLY enough space for the whole school to sit and have a meal - even if they all wanted to? If schools don't start by getting the basics right why would our children waste their short lunch break queuing in an over-crowded dinner hall? Please see the message we want to send to Ed Balls (Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families) asking him to put this right, or why not download one of our postcards to print off and send.
If you'd like to join the national campaign Parents For Better Food In Schools please contact Paula@Mertonparents.co.uk
There is also a dedicated online discussion forum at netmums.co.uk where like-minded people (not just Mums!) can link up and share ideas on how to improve school meals. Please join the debate!
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The Dining Room Experience Competition
Our Dining Room Competition was a great sucess with some fantastic entries from the School Councils. Thanks to everyone who entered. The winners were:
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First prize - Aragon Primary School (mains fed water cooler donated by Watercoolers Direct, presented by
England rugby star James Simpson Daniel 21.06.07)
Second Prize - Beecholme Primary School (£300 for school council to spend on dining room)
Third prize - Wimbledon Park Primary School (£100)
Highly commended - St Matthew's Church of England Primary School (£100)
Highly commended - Gorringe Park Primary School (£100)
Highly commended - Poplar Primary School (all expenses farm trip)
Problems with a meal? If you have any complaints about a meal provided in School you can contact Tom Procter at Merton Council who will investigate and resolve the issue. His email address is tom.procter@merton.gov.uk and further contact details are here.
See some messages of support from The Soil Association.
Our children deserve better than this!
Jamie Oliver is quoted in The Mirror as saying
"These are truly shocking pictures that highlight the mountain we have to climb in getting school dinners healthy and nutritional."
Meals have improved considerably in Merton since these pictures were taken in April 2005. Finally the contractor who produced them - Initial - has been replaced. It's worth leaving the pictures here though as a reminder of how things were.... Click to see our rogues gallery of meals that used to be served up in Merton Primary Schools.
Here are some comments that have been made in the recent past.
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" I plan to make the improvements to school meals and the place of healthy and organic food an aspiration for all Merton schools. Clearly, this cannot
happen overnight, but will with thought, effort and support be achieved."
Dave Hill (Director of Parents, Families and Schools, Merton Council) 17th November 2005
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"It remains the ambition of the Council to achieve a wider roll out of the Jamie menu or similar in Merton's primary schools and I am confident that it will be achieved."
Andrew Judge (Merton Council Leader) 16th November 2005
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"I've
sent Jamie Oliver's pack of advice to every school in London. There is no
justification for any of the schools in London to continue with the policies
which frankly are going to shorten the lives of their pupils and students."
Ken Livingston, 14th September 2005, ITV
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Written by Local Parents
Read a response from local parent Cait Taylor to Council Leader Andrew Judge's letter to The Guardian.
School Meal Survey. You may have heard that many primary age children in Merton have been sent a survey by the local authority. Joanne Sibthorpe a social researcher and local parent has grave concerns. She has written to Mr Judge and to the local Guardian. See her letters here.
Jackie Schneider, the driving force behind Merton Parents for Better Food in School, describes in a brief history, how the group came into being.
Here's an article written by Carine Grout, a local parent.
Parent, Chris McNicholas, ate lunch at school for 4 days recently. Here's his diary.
You can make a difference. Here's what to do:
Write a letter or an email...
We began our campaign with a large petition, but individual letters or emails will carry much more weight. Please take the time to contact the people who can influence change.
If you've written before, write again to ask how things are progressing.
People you could write to.
Put up a poster...
See some of the fantastic posters and handouts we've used in our campaign. Most of these are out of date now, but we've left them here for posterity!
Click image to see more of our posters
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Speak to people...
Discuss the issue with other parents.
Speak to the Headteacher at your school.
Ask your School Governors to influence change.
Tell people about this website.
To join our email list, please enter your email address in the box below, then click the button.
(Please note: we will not pass on your address to any other organisations)
Search our site with Google.
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