School Meals Taster Day
In September North East Lincolnshire Council will be using a new school meals provider.
On Thursday 11th of June, Harry Cook, Kaishia Charlton, Mrs Snell, Ms Cook and Miss Charlton all attended a food tasting session at Old Clee Children’s Centre.
The object of the taster session was to get the opinions of the children and parents on the food that two providers were offering.
The providers were Cygnet and Mellors. Both providers were offering hot meals for us to taste.
Kaishia tried everything on offer from Cygnet; her favourite was the Chicken Pie. Harry tried the Chicken Curry and the Beef Bolognaise. Harry’s favourite dish was the Beef Bolognaise. There were also vegetables to accompany these meals, these included carrots, potatoes and broccoli. There was also rice on offer to go with the curry.
There were two puddings available from Cygnet for us to try, a mixed fruit crumble with custard and a chocolate and pear pudding. Kaishia liked the chocolate pudding.
The other provider, Mellors had several hot dishes to try and a range of puddings. They also offered sandwiches, salad and fresh fruit. All of these items would be available to children who stay school dinners if Mellors win the school meal contract.
Kaishia tried all the hot dishes which included a Cottage Pie, Tomato Pasta and a Quorn Lasagne. Kaishia enjoyed most of them except the Tomato Pasta.
Mellors were also offering an apple crumble which both Harry and Kaishia really enjoyed.
Harry and Kaishia really loved the Fairy Cakes that Mellors had on offer, this was their favourite item.
Mellors also offered fruit juice which both children enjoyed. They also enjoyed the fresh fruit that was on offer.
Both of the providers said that the ingredients they used would be sourced locally and neither of them would be using frozen meat products.
Mellors also told Mrs Snell and Ms Cook that they used the Red Tractor system; this means that they can identify which farm their meat or fruit and vegetable products have come from. (For more info go to www.myredtractor.co.uk)
Mellors also seemed very keen to engage children and parents in various activities to encourage them to have school meals.
Harry’s mum and Kaishia’s Aunt were both very impressed with the food that they tasted. Harry’s mum is vegetarian and was pleased to see so many vegetarian choices on offer.
Overall we preferred Mellors because we liked the choices of food they had on offer and in particular we liked the fact that there were sandwiches, salad and fresh fruit to choose as well as hot meals.
There were three other schools at this event and all of us were asked to fill in evaluation forms as we went round. We had to rate the food according to its appearance, taste, smell and portion size. All of the information that they collect from the taster session will help the council to make the final decision about who cooks our school meals from September.
You can find information on both company’s by going to the following websites:
