Beath High School students take their concerns about school meals to Holyrood.
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00:00 I sat down with five Beith High School students this week who have raised concerns about the
00:04 quantity, quality and pricing of Fife school meals.
00:07 They've raised it with the local area committee previously, but now they've gone all the
00:11 way to the Scottish Government.
00:13 A Holyrood representative met with them last week to talk about what they need to do to
00:17 create change locally.
00:19 Here's Inez Shearer, Kate Thayer, Emily Ingalls and Amy Annwender with more.
00:23 The concerns we started getting raised because people think us, like I had people from the
00:28 school, like friends and that, come and tell me.
00:30 And there was actually people from other schools in Fife that were coming to speak to me, just
00:34 like friends talking in general.
00:37 So I thought we'd take it to Mr Leray, who's a year ahead.
00:44 We wrote a letter then to whoever listened and Fife Council.
00:52 That led to a meeting with Councillor Rob, who came and spoke to us and started a meeting
00:57 with Fife Council and the Scottish Government.
01:01 The issues that we found, just to go into more depth, was that the prices, we didn't
01:07 understand how they were set, because a lot of us were getting charged different amounts
01:12 for the same things, depending on what day it was or who we went to to pay.
01:20 And we also found that a lot of us actually felt hungry after eating our lunch.
01:25 And that was one of the things that we just felt that we couldn't go on feeling like that,
01:29 because that's not right.
01:30 And I think we should also say that the cafeteria staff are really grateful for them, and they
01:39 do all that they can for us.
01:41 So we have nothing against the cafeteria staff.
01:45 It's just the way that the school meals are set up.
01:48 They do all they can for us and they're really helpful.
01:52 The Scottish Government really highlighted that it was out of their hands as well.
01:56 So it's like nothing to do with cafeteria.
01:57 The Scottish Government really highlighted that.
02:00 The Scottish Government representative came in and spoke with the students about the strict
02:03 legislation that binds local authorities when it comes to school meals.
02:08 It highlighted the further discussions the students need to have with Fife Council and
02:11 the direction that those conversations need to take.
02:14 I think what we need to think about now is how we're going to make these changes happen.
02:21 We've got a meeting with the head of service to reach from Fife Council after Easter holidays
02:27 when we come back to school.
02:28 So we can find out more about it then.
02:29 But it's been really good to speak with someone from the Scottish Government to find out what
02:36 exactly is the issue that is stopping us from making the changes that we want to make.
02:45 And then when we can bring that back to the head of service, hopefully we can come up
02:49 with a plan to get this in motion.
02:54 When you say that they've helped point you in the right direction of where you need to
02:57 go to make that change, where have they pointed you?
02:59 Is it the local authority?
03:01 Is it within the school?
03:02 Where is that coming down to?
03:03 It's the local authority.
03:04 I think most of it is down to the local authority.
03:05 All the questions we asked are pointed towards that.
03:06 She gave us answers on who we need to speak to, who we need to raise concerns to and how
03:19 we can get answers for it.
03:20 It just helped us with what we need to do.
03:21 Now that we understand the way that things are set, because we went into detail about
03:32 what the legislation actually is.
03:34 Legislation, nutrition, we went into detail about it.
03:37 So we understand why we can't have certain things and we totally get that.
03:42 But now, obviously, we can bring that back to Tariq and we can ask whether there's any
03:49 way to work with the legislation to create meals that we'll all enjoy.
03:54 I think what we should be going forward and doing is speaking about ways we can increase
03:59 the fullness feeling, like what things can we add in that there's no limit on.
04:04 Like leg tattles and seasoning that'll make it tasty and more filling.
04:10 Yeah, there is a limit on things like salt, but there's not on anything seasoning wise.
04:15 230 grams over a week for red processed meat.
04:20 Only 130 out of 230 can be processed red meat.
04:24 And then there's stuff like fish and at least 8 grams of fruit and vegetables over a course
04:33 of meals at our school.
04:35 So with sticking into these nutritional standards, still try to feel full.
04:42 Great.
04:43 Can I just ask you guys, why are you so passionate about this and why are you bringing this to
04:49 the council, to the government?
04:51 What's your motivation?
04:52 We're all there every day and it's something that we eat every day and our friends eat
04:57 every day.
04:58 And the cafeteria is busy.
05:01 It's really popular and loads of people go.
05:04 So I think the majority of us are in our last year and then Amy's still got a year.
05:11 So even if it doesn't benefit us, it'll benefit the people who are then to come on.
05:18 And the thing that we have in common with everyone in the school and everyone across
05:22 the city is that we're all school kids who need energy to learn.
05:25 So by us doing this, as Kate said, it'll help everyone, not just us.
05:31 So I think it's a good feeling, like helping the future kids that'll come up to high school
05:36 and helping the kids that are here now.
05:38 We're not asking for lots of stuff.
05:40 We're just asking for stuff that's nutritional and fills us up.
05:44 You're filled up after that, but then it wears off by the time you have the end of lunch.
05:50 So we're not asking for unreasonable things here.
05:54 We've looked into the nutritional standards, as we've spoken about.
05:58 We've got a better understanding of it.
06:01 And what we're just going to do now is how we're going to be able to make these things happen
06:05 while obviously following the legislation that's set.
06:08 The group has a meeting in the diary with Fife's head of service after the Easter holidays,
06:12 and a Fife-wide review of school meals will likely come to the council's Education Scrutiny Committee in September.
06:17 This has been Danielle Van Reenen, local democracy reporter for Fife.
06:21 Thanks for listening.
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