One millionth school meal served up at Stenhouse Primary School

The one millionth school meal of the term was served up at a special primary school ceremony in Edinburgh.

Stenhouse Primary School pupil Faith Johnston, five, receives her school lunch

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The city council has reached the milestone just a few months after the Primary 4 Free School Meals scheme was launched in August.

The extension saw the council’s meal uptake across the capital increase by 15 per cent, with approximately 20,500 meals served every day.This number is expected to rise to 25,000 by August 2022.

Five-year-old Primary 1 pupil Faith Johnston was among the Primary 1 and 2 pupils at Stenhouse Primary School, in Saughton Mains Street, to be served school meals by Alison Dickie, the council’s education vice convener, at a special presentation yesterday. The event also saw a huge ‘one million’ cake and millionaire’s shortbread featured on the menu.

A council spokesman said the nutritionally balanced lunches are prepared everyday by around 550 catering staff. He added that local produce is used where possible and that the council have increased the spend on British produce by 20 per cent in just three years.

This includes, on average, 7,000 kg of Scottish cheddar, almost 363,000 free range eggs, 90,000 kg of baking potatoes and almost 6,000 kg of QMS beef mince every year.

The spokesman said: “We are credited annually by Soil Association to ensure we only use QMS or Red Tractor meat, MSC fish and free range eggs.

“Combined with the new school food regulations over the last few years, we have reduced sugar in our menus by 37 per cent, salt by 44 per cent, and halved the saturated fat in recipes.”

He added that more than £1million has been committed to the Primary 4 expansion, with the council’s school kitchen capacity set to increase by 30 per cent by 2023.

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