I am a business manager of a large secondary school. People always seem to make out the meal cost Xp to make and ignore, overheads, heating, rent, electricity, staff wages etc! If you want to see dreadful value for money take a look at any supermarket cafes which charge ridiculous prices when the supplies are coming from its own store and look at the buying power!
Back to Jamie - if people wish to live in a nanny state then the govt should do more to dictate what food our children eat.
My school went totally healthy eating 18 months ago, no chips, burgers, pizzas, sweets, fizzy drinks. No re-constituted meat, all meals prepared from scratch - result - 40% drop in childrens take up and �1,000s in losses.
Instead parents give their children their dinner money and off they pop to Tesco on the way in to school for doughnuts and crisps! Dont blame education - we are all to blame.
Cashless system schools are fairing a little better because the parents pay the school and the child has a card to swipe when paying for their meal, no cash to spend on other things!