05/10/2026
Statement from the Stirling SNP Councillor Group regarding School Meals.
Earlier this year Councillors were presented with multiple Budget proposals by Council Officers, aimed at closing a multi-million pound gap between the Council’s income and its planned expenditure. Among these was a proposal from the Education Service to restructure and change how school lunches were delivered to our Primary and Nursery Schools. The proposal would save £500k in its first year of operation and £900k per year thereafter and require spending £1m on new equipment. For context the £900k figure equals an ongoing saving of 1.5% per year on residents Council Tax Bills.
The SNP group looked at the proposal and sought confirmation from Officers that the resulting food offering would match or exceed the existing for nutrition, would retain the Soil Association Food for Life “Silver” standard and that the changes could be made while ensuring the Council’s “No Compulsory Redundancy” Policy could be maintained for Staff affected. At an “All Members” briefing on Monday afternoon Councillors were informed that Officers are now working with a single preferred supplier and assured that all these points can be achieved, with the single proviso that the Soil Association criteria on the distance food travels ( 20 miles) remains under negotiation, we are hopeful that agreement can be reached on this point. All other criteria, in particular the nutrition ones, can be met by that preferred supplier.
The main change is that the “protein” ( meat) element of the menu will be prepared using fresh ingredients centrally and provided to the schools pre-prepared, while the remainder ( carbohydrates, salads and other vegetables etc) will be prepared from scratch on site. For clarity, the proposal meets all National guidelines on food and nutrition, all food would continue to be bought via the “Scotland Excel” contract mechanism as now; the mechanism requires that all relevant food safety standards are met. A daily vegetarian option will be offered and bespoke individual diets including vegan are available. Apart from sliced ham and pepperoni for sandwiches and pizza all meat is Scottish, QMS or Red Tractor standard. No fish rated as “to avoid” by the Marine Conservation Society will be served, all eggs will be from Free Range birds, milk will be certified organic. No GM ingredients, undesirable additives, artificial sweeteners or artificial trans fats will be used.
The impact on our staff was also discussed and it was confirmed that people concerned will be protected, retaining the No Compulsory Redundancy policy. The Council has established a significant Reserve to ensure that tailored retraining and up-skilling packages can be made available to any staff affected. With the rate of staff turnover in a 4500 strong workforce HR staff are confident that new posts can be found for all.
Negotiations continue with both the preferred supplier and with the Soil Association but at this stage we are content that the proposal is on track to meet all our children’s nutritional requirements while protecting the interests of our staff and producing a significant saving for our residents.
