Catering crisis sees pupils miss hot lunches

PUPILS at seven South Gloucestershire schools are going without hot lunches because of a catering staffing crisis.

The council admits it can provide only cold food, such as sandwiches, or jacket potatoes at best because of the chronic recruitment shortage in catering but insists youngsters are getting the nutrition they need.

Schools in Thornbury, Downend, Little Stoke and a number of other villages are among those affected by the vacancies, which stand at 23 across the district.

The issue was raised at a South Gloucestershire Council cabinet meeting by Thornbury ward Lib Dem councillor Jayne Stansfield.

She told the meeting: “Apparently the children in Thornbury have not been having access to the hot meals they expect due to high levels of staffing vacancies. So I would like to know what is being done to ensure that they do get their hot meals now and also into the future.”

Conservative cabinet member for corporate resources Cllr Ben Burton said that Integra, the local authority’s trading arm which provides services to its schools, was finding it as hard as many other hospitality and retail companies in recruiting for roles.

He said: “It’s a testament to the team that you can see management stepping in where possible in order to try to continue to deliver the services to schools. The impact that has had is obviously some schools have been placed on the cold service, the sandwich service, which still provides the nutritional benefits and a balance in accordance with what Integra is looking to provide, but of course it doesn’t substitute necessarily for hot school meals.”

He said two or three vacancies had now been filled at Crossways school in Thornbury, which was one of those unable to provide hot lunches but that these were starting up again this week.

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson said: “Recruitment for catering and hospitality roles is proving very challenging across the country at the moment and where we have had vacancies and staff sickness on occasion, we have had to suspend hot meal services to some schools for periods of time.

“This is of course regrettable. However, where sandwiches are being provided as part of a lunch service we continue to maintain high nutritional standards and provide a balanced meal. In any case where we need to temporarily alter the service provided, we work with the schools so they are aware of the situation and seek to restore hot meal provision as soon as possible.”