The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Turkey burger spoke of more than just the quality of school meal
Younger generations will never know the hardship of life before social media.
When I were a lad, if I wanted to share pictures of my dinner with friends and loved ones, I needed to take the film to Boots, wait several hours for it to be developed and then physically schlep door-to-door to find out what people thought of my chicken stroganoff.
Now, thanks to platforms like Facebook and Twitter, we can share photos of our meals instantly, at the touch of a button. Nice job, humanity – another great technological step forward for everyone.
Well, maybe not everyone. It wasn’t great news for bosses at Tayside Contracts this week, who were forced to defend their catering services after an image of a particularly sorry looking turkey burger served at Blairgowrie High School went viral.
Tayside Contracts was quick to issue an apology, and stressed this was an isolated case.
But soon after, more photos began tumbling out of cyberspace including an unappetising looking bacon and chicken roll.
On Thursday, managing director Iain Waddell fired back at his online critics, trying to put some perspective on the issue. The images, he said, represented just a tiny fraction of the six million meals produced by Tayside Contracts in local schools each year.
And he’s putting his money where his mouth is, by extending an invitation to Education Secretary John Swinney for a taste-drive lunch at a school of his choosing.
Mr Waddell is right to say that these photos are not a fair representation of Tayside Contracts’ work. Social media is rarely a good barometer for these kind of things: nobody is going to share the everyday images, only the extreme ones.
But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem that needs to be addressed. Even a small number of those rancidlooking burgers being served to schoolchildren is way too many.
Important questions about school meals need to be answered, particularly as decision day looms for Tayside’s contentious frozen food plan.
The proposal, to be debated by Perth and Kinross Council later this month, involves creating a central kitchen in Dundee, freezing the meals and then shipping them out to schools across the region.
The plan has already proved controversial, and politically divisive.
Parents – now understandably anxious about what their children are being fed – are going to need some extra reassuring before they welcome such a change with open arms.
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