I think we are both arguing the same thing - I was just trying not to antagonise too many people who might feel that certain groups need separate catering. FYI The disaster when contracting out started was that the company had simply divided the number of pupils by the portion sizes on the Brake Bros catering packs they bought without considering CH table sizes. So for the first week or so they tried to give each 14 person table a 10 portion tray of lasagne or whatever - when there was an understandable outcry from all the boys about needing more food (little complaint from the girls if i remember rightly), they then had to up the amounts to 2 trays per table, thus they ran out of supplies/money near the end of the Lent term and the Summer term was a term of very low cost catering. I remember we used to have a deal with the nearest BarnesB (girls) table that we would take their left over food as they seemed to only pick at the 2nd tray and we could easily demolish 2.5 trays between 14 senior boyssejintenej wrote:
CH does not have to compete with the local comp; the situations are totally different. CH pupils in theory have no alternative source of their 5 a day, protein etc but comp pupils can avoid their school meals and hopefully get a proper meal from mummy or the chippie.
Long before your time there was a standard menu - which you ate or starved. (I'm not sure how the Jewish boy in Col A was handled - we served him the same stuff as everyone else and he thrived on it). However parents knew the situation in advance - they could accept it or simply not apply for a place which IMHO should be the policy now.
That is not to say a change was impossible to arrange; a London specialist (thanks to my mother's employer) prescribed for me one banana a day to control not too bad acne. In an interview about the matter Dr Scott was far from totally in favour of specialists but I did get the banana. AFAIR there were just a few foods I had to avoid; no alternatives were made available but I suspect helpings of the other parts of the meal might have been increased slightly - that was up to the Trades Mon.
Having mentioned a Jewish boy, the crew on my first job included a Sikh. Given the conditions everyone was ordered to be clean-shaven at all times - the Sikh took the instructions to the temple where he was given permission to shave and to eat whatever food was available - mainly beef pemmican it turned out. Of course nobody had spotted the religious significance in advance so the instructions to him were instantly reversed though he chose to follow the rules binding the rest of us. Why cannot others try to fit in with the majority?
I would have thought with the money being spent on the new kitchens it was time to look at bringing catering back in house. Surely having total control over eating makes it far easier to ensure sufficient balanced food intake than when people have help yourself buffet service
