Parents paying price for the varying cost of school meals

PARENTS in some parts of Wales are forking out hundreds of pounds more for their children’s school dinners than in others, it has been revealed.

This year the cheapest primary schools meals are on offer in Caerphilly with a charge of £2 whereas Cardiff charges £2.50.

There is not a set rate for secondary schools across Wales with some authorities giving individual schools setting the rate.

But of those which could provide information, Cardiff charges the most at £2.95. The cheapest is Caerphilly at £2.25.

It means parents of two children are paying a difference of £190 this school year in Caerphilly compared to their neighbours in Cardiff. Over the seven years of primary school that adds up to £1,330.

Councils are currently setting their budgets for 2019-20, and some have already said there will be further rises to school meals.

A typical primary school menu in Cardiff includes dishes like homemade chicken or vegetable balti with rice, chipped potatoes and sweetcorn with dessert of banana and raisin muffin; roast beef, pork or vegetarian sausage with roast or new potatoes, gravy, carrots or peas with a dessert of chocolate cornflake crisp.

In Caerphilly, the options include southern fried chicken goujons or ravioli with chipped or mashed potatoes, sweetcorn, peas or salad with dessert of apple and raspberry crumble; chicken breast with gravy or Quorn sausage, sage and thyme roast potatoes, swede, cabbage, carrots and dessert of jelly.

In 2016-17, the most expensive primary school meals were Carmarthenshire and Rhondda Cynon Taff and cheapest were in Caerphilly.

In the same year, secondary school meals were most expensive in Cardiff and cheapest in Caerphilly.

In 2018-19, the cheapest primary school meals were in Caerphilly and most expensive in Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Gwynedd.

The cheapest secondary school meals are in Caerphilly, and most expensive in Cardiff.

A Caerphilly council spokesman said: “We are extremely proud of the high quality meals provided by our school catering service.

“We have been able to maintain a competitive price in order to encourage maximum take-up by pupils and we are also proud to use local products and suppliers for our school menus. ”

Cardiff council’s cabinet member for finance, modernisation and performance, Chris Weaver, said: “As the report published last week by the Centre for Cities shows, Cardiff is the Welsh city hit hardest by UK Government austerity, with spending in 2017/18 £148 per head lower than in 2009/10.

“Despite having had to deliver huge multi-million pound savings each year for more than a decade, Cardiff Council is still facing a further £90m budget gap over the next three years.

“In the face of these swingeing cuts, we have had to make the difficult decision to gradually remove the subsidy for school meals over the last few years. However, through effective use of our procurement practices, we have been able to keep costs as low as possible, and this is reflected in our school meal prices being similar to those in other areas of Wales.

“There is no school meal price increase in our budget proposals for 2019/20.”