THOUSANDS MORE Oldham school children can tuck into free school dinners this term.
Oldham Council has been busy over the summer holidays ensuring necessary works are complete across the borough to meet the demand for extra meals.
The work carried out has ranged from changing layouts and upgrading kitchen equipment to building small extensions in primary schools.
From September 1 all children in reception, Year 1 and 2 in state-funded schools will automatically get free school meals as part of the government’s School Food Plan.
This is an automatic ‘opt-in’ system, which includes academies, free schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision, and maintained schools.
Parents must advise their primary school if they do not wish to take advantage of the offer.
In the last academic year 7,783 local pupils were already taking free school meals from existing means-tested offers across all school ages.
Some of those are among the estimated 5,000 primary school pupils now automatically eligible to take advantage of the new scheme.
Councillor Amanda Chadderton, Cabinet Member for Education and Safeguarding, said: “Our primary schools will all be ready to offer the new free school meals and we are expecting a big uptake.
“This offer will help parents to save much-needed money on the cost of meals and packed lunches – around £390 each per year.
“Like all local authorities we received a grant from government towards making the required kitchen improvements.
“We were awarded £412,073 but have had to work very closely with schools to make every pound count, be creative and add extra funding to ensure we are ready for the new term.”
Pupils in many local schools will enjoy meals from Oldham Council’s Education Catering Team which became only the third local authority in the country to get the prestigious ‘Gold Food for Life Catering Mark’ earlier this year.
Councillor Chadderton added: “Parents can be assured our school meals are healthy, ethically prepared, and contain lots of locally sourced ingredients and products.
“All the menus are freshly prepared daily on site by our teams using a range of organic, high animal welfare produce and free range ingredients.”
Find out more information about free school meals at www.oldham.gov.uk/schoolmeals
