Manchester Pupils Love School Dinners

Gone are the days of concrete chips and soggy semolina, school dinners have changed and are now more popular then ever, a new survey has found.

Manchester Fayre, the City Council’s school meal provider, is enjoying the sweet taste of success after figures show that the uptake in school meals has increased for a second year running.

The survey, published by the School Food Trust, shows that the uptake of school meals in Manchester is higher than both the national average and the average across the North West.

Nationally the take-up figures for school meals in primary schools are 44.1 per cent 37.6 per cent in secondary schools.

But Manchester Fayre’s take-up figures were over fourteen per cent higher than the national average for primary schools at 58.4 per cent and sixteen per cent higher for secondary schools at 53.5per cent.

Councillor Jeff Smith, Manchester City Council’s executive member for finance and human resources with a responsibility for school meals said: "We pride ourselves on the quality of our school meals both in terms of taste and nutrition and the results speak for themselves. The figures make for very happy reading for all the team and shows that their hard work in delivering this service and educating families about healthy eating is paying off. It proves that healthy, nutritious food can also be popular and tasty.”