Chris McNicholas decided to eat school lunches at Pelham School for 4 days at the beginning of May 05. Food had begun to improve following our campaign, but it still left a lot to be desired.

Monday - second sitting

I have to confess to having a few reservations as I walked to school the first day. I went through primary and secondary school having school dinners and on the whole thoroughly enjoyed the food. I wonder if they still do sponge cake and pink custard? However, my stepchildren both dislike school dinners at Pelham and prefer to take packed lunches. I've also been watching Jamie's School Dinners which has been fairly damning.

My first impression was that the food was served on plastic trays as opposed to plates as we had when I was a kid. There were two options available at the serving hatch; vegetable ravioli and a breaded chicken burger/pattie. I'm afraid I "chickened" out on the chicken as it looked fairly unpalatable. I went for the ravioli with green beans and potatoes. The ravioli was surprisingly nice. As a student I ate lots of tinned ravioli and this was certainly nicer. The beans were certainly overcooked but edible and not sitting in water as I'd feared they may be. The potatoes were sliced and roasted in appearance and reasonably tasty. My only gripe would be that the food wasn't especially hot. I didn't have tomato sauce on my dish which interestingly was rationed by the midday supervisor. For dessert I went for the strawberry yoghurt, which was virtually fat free and sadly completely taste free.

Not a bad first day to be honest but tomorrow I've decided to go more from a child's perspective and choose what I'd perceive to be the least healthy option.

Tuesday - first sitting

I was quite looking forward to today's meal. The options were either Pasta Bolognese or the vegetarian option of a Cheese and Onion Pepper Roll; which sort of blew away my unhealthy option choice. I quickly scanned the kids' meal trays and the pasta was clearly the choice of the day. I therefore chose Pasta Bolognese with mixed vegetables. The vegetables were again overcooked but reasonably tasty. The kids did say that they didn't like all the vegetables mixed up though. The Pasta Bolognese was not a success, quite flavourless, oddly devoid of any type of sauce and very dry. How can Bolognese come without sauce? For dessert I chose the Chocolate Chip Cookie which was okay but then again you can't go far wrong with it.

The thing about this meal was that it left a very bad taste in my mouth. I'd quite like to know what type of mince they use and how they cook this dish. I must confess I had to go for a cappuccino to offset the taste.

Wednesday - second sitting

I feel like I'm on reality television now and not especially looking forward to Roast Pork and Gravy with Roast Potatoes, white cabbage and carrot rounds (not sure why they need to confirm the shape of the vegetable?). I might have to join the queue for the tomato ketchup!!

The pork, potatoes and carrots were all quite nice. However, the cabbage was beyond disgusting. Clearly the preparation of cabbage in a school kitchen has not moved in since the 1970's when I ate them. It was cold, sitting in water and tasted worse than I remember. I should point out that I hated vegetables as a child but have overcome that phobia. Apple Crumble and custard was quite stodgy but very tasty; just the way I like it.

Not surprisingly the roast dinner is one of the more popular choices and from speaking to the mid-day supervisors the Christmas Lunch is always the one meal when kids who normally take their lunch boxes opt for a hot meal.

Thursday - second sitting

I was sort of looking forward to my Homemade Cheesy Pinwheel today, perhaps only to consider whose home it had been made in, but sadly for me and somewhat rather joyously for the children the only item on offer today was Pizza. It was quite nice and came with diced potatoes, peas and coleslaw. Dessert was a small tub of ice cream which also delighted most of the children too.

This was my last day as I had a work commitment on Friday .

I think my main worry with regard to the food would be:-

- Poor quality of cooked vegetables
- Poor storage of cooked vegetables i.e left standing in water
- Poor selection of vegetarian options, as they invariably involved pastry, which is fine but not every day
- Serving food on plastic trays
- Not enough time to eat. This was due to two sittings during the lunch period and the fact most of the kids wanted to rush off to get outside

I also managed to look at the lunch box alternatives too. I was somewhat surprised as to how good they were. A good mix of food groups, almost all including some fresh fruit. I had a good chat with the mid-day supervisors who did monitor the food the children brought in and even put notes in to remind parents/carers that the school would prefer it if they didn't bring in sweets and also for those children who occasionally tried to dump certain items in the bin.

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