Mother’s fears at ‘burger van’ lunches

9:30am Thursday 7th April 2005

FUELLED by the horrors revealed on Jamie Oliver’s school dinner’s programme, a parent at Holmer Green Junior School is concerned she may have unearthed an obesity time bomb.

Dawn Buchanan, of Benjamin Road, High Wycombe, is afraid that her ten-year-old son James, who is entitled to free school meals, could be fed almost exclusively on a diet of burgers and grease when he moves to the senior school in September.

In the absence of a working kitchen the pupils at Holmer Green are supplied with food from what Mrs Buchanan describes as a mobile “burger van”.

She said: “I don’t want him eating burgers and fried food every day at school.

“I don’t mind making him chips once or twice a month for dinner, but I make sure I do them in the oven, I can’t see that happening at school.” The Government’s nutritional standards require schools offering food to provide pupils with a choice of at least one starchy food that has not been cooked in oil or fat, as well as a portion of fruit and vegetables.

James has already experienced a radical change to his school dinners because the school canteen which used to provide him with a balanced hot meal has been converted into a library. He now eats a packed lunch.

Bob Bird, chairman of the senior school governors says James will continue to receive a healthy, balanced school meal when he joins in September.

He said: “We have a contractor to supply packed lunches for pupils who are entitled to free school meals.

“The ‘burger van’ could equally be called a ‘tuna baguette and jacket potato van’ because it sells a much wider variety of food than just fried food.

Buckinghamshire County Council said it has very little influence in the individual school catering contracts and merely provides the budget.