Packed lunch on the menu as school kitchens forced to close

Social distancing will make preparation of hot meals on-site too difficult as children return next month

PARENTS face being forced to send their children to school with packed lunches when classrooms reopen next month, with the pandemic threatening the mass closure of on-site kitchens.

Some schools are already requesting that pupils bring lunch with them amid warnings many more could follow as they grapple with social distancing if the Government confirms it is safe to resume lessons on June 1.

The Sunday Telegraph has been told that keeping two metres apart will be impossible in some school kitchens, which may mean no hot meals being prepared on-site during the school day.

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT, Britain’s largest head teachers union, said: “We have issued guidance to our members to help them to plan to readmit more pupils to school should the Government confirm it is safe to do so. We believe that this should be done in a phased way, gradually increasing capacity. The risks of going too far, too fast are obvious.

“Readmitting more pupils, even in a phased way, will create complications which schools will have to solve for themselves at a local and individual level. This may mean that some schools are not able to offer everything they typically provide or would want to provide for pupils and families.

“In the case of school meals, social distancing or unavailability of staff may mean that kitchens can’t open and that families may be asked to provide a packed lunch, even if only in the short term. Some schools will be able to open their kitchens and some won’t.”

Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, added: “It seems a perfectly reasonable request and may indeed be necessary and, therefore, widespread. In some schools, kitchens are very small and social distancing would be impossible.”

Packed lunches will mean lunch boxes being brought into school from home and Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said yesterday it was important these were “kept as clean as possible”, especially given children would be putting their hands up to their mouth and face while eating. But she was confident they would not share or swap lunch with other pupils, telling viewers of the No10 press conference: “The issue about lunch boxes is, they’re quite personal to the child eating the lunch and I can almost guarantee that one child won’t want to eat the lunch of the one sitting, hopefully, two metres’ distance from them.”

Rosamund McNeil, the assistant general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Some schools have already asked parents to bring in packed lunches for the children on site at the moment.

“We think it’s working quite well as long as free school meals are still available or vouchers are working for the relevant families, although we know the voucher system for free school meals has caused a lot of headaches.”

The £15-a-week voucher system set up to help those in most need has also been beset by delays and technical glitches that have left parents with trolleys full of shopping embarrassed at shop tills. Some schools have even resorted to supplying emergency food parcels for desperate families.

The Government has also been accused of dropping “universal infant free school meals” provision.

That has compounded fears raised before the crisis that the entire programme, introduced by the coalition in 2014, was under threat. However, the Government guidelines indicate it is not in imminent danger.

Pupils who usually attend a breakfast club have also been supported during lockdown, with breakfasts having been delivered directly to homes by school staff.

The Department for Education did not respond to requests for comment yesterday about the threatened closure of school kitchens.

Some have remained open during the lockdown for the children on the front line in the fight against Covid-19 and government guidelines make clear their needs must be catered for.

They state: “Schools should provide meal options for all children who are in school, and meals should be available free of charge where pupils meet the benefits-related free school meal eligibility criteria and to all infant pupils.

“The government will continue to provide schools with their expected funding.”