Edinburgh Evening News DEPUTY education minister Euan Robson was today urged to act more like TV chef Jamie Oliver and deliver healthier school meals.
Scottish Socialist MSP Frances Curran said the Executive’s current policy had failed and called on the Scottish Parliament to back free school meals across Scotland.
"As a society we are supporting and condoning stuffing our kids full of over-processed food laden with salt, fat and sugar," she said during a parliamentary debate.
And she urged the Executive to take a lead from Oliver, whose current TV series, Jamie’s School Dinners, has tackled the poor state of food in some schools.
Mr Robson was today visiting Leith Primary School to promote healthy meals, but he rejected the SSP’s call for free meals for pupils.
He said: "Providing free school meals to all pupils will not improve their health if the food itself, as well as the atmosphere in which it is eaten, is not appetising and stimulating."
Tory MSP Brian Monteith said many pupils did not want nutritious meals. He recalled a visit to Leith Academy, where he said the canteen menu included pasta, baked potatoes and broccoli.
"Where were the pupils? They were outside the school. It was the teachers enjoying the broccoli."
But Ms Curran said: "If you accept the argument that kids won’t eat healthy food, then you’re accepting that multinational food companies will slowly poison a generation of Scottish children and that we will be bystanders."
