Dear Parent/Guardian,

I am writing to inform you of price changes to the school meals service from 15th April 2019.

The meal price will increase from: 

Primary School.

Currently £2.00 will change to £2.10 for 2 courses and a drink. 

Secondary schools.

Currently £2.05 will change to £2.15 for 2 courses and a drink.

For the last 2 years the school meal price has been held at £2.00 and £2.05 respectively. In comparing prices across other local authorities based on 2018/19 figures North Lanarkshire Council were 5th cheapest for the cost of a primary school 2 course lunch with drink and 6th cheapest for a secondary school 2 course lunch with drink. In increasing the school meal price we will still remain within the average price brackets.

All Primary 1 to 3 children are entitled to receive a free 2 course school meal with a drink which includes a choice from two main meals or a snack 2 go. Our menus can be accessed in various different ways via the council’s website and you are able to set up an alert system to your mail box which provides in advance access to the weekly menu so you can assist with your child’s selections.

You can sign up to this when you access the Primary school meals page where the link is at the top of the page – northlanarkshire.gov.uk/primaryschoolmeals

There are lots of exciting things going on within the school meals service and we have recently run competitions on increasing milk uptake ‘Drink Milk Grow Healthy’ and also on encouraging our children to try new foods from around the world the ‘Be a Food Explorer’.

We have increased vegetable content in some meals through blending such as the sauce for the pizza recipe and the tomato pasta dish. In addition our sweet treats often include fruit and vegetables.

We are preparing for forthcoming guidelines from the Scottish Government and will be reducing the number of times that ham will be available as a sandwich filling and introducing more reduced sugar sweet treats. We are also working with schools to reduce single use plastics and have various schools participating in pilots with us with the intention of rolling this out over the next 12 months.

More information can be found on our School Meals Website as above. You can contact us at FacilitySupportServs@northlan.gov.uk or telephone on 01236 856464. Thank you for continuing to support our school meals service. Regards Anne Hanlon Business Manager Facility Support Services.