Stop serving milk in high school and replace Bregott with Lätta in all school canteens.
It proposes the meal service in Eskilstuna as a cost-saving measure to reduce food costs at the municipality’s schools.
– What I have to decide is whether I can afford to have support for the students and learning materials versus the food, says Johan Ahlqvist, principal at St. Eskil’s high school.
The meal service in Eskilstuna municipality is now proposing a series of measures to reduce costs in the municipality’s schools and elderly care from the turn of the year.
For the students in the municipality’s preschools, elementary schools and high schools, this would mean, among other things, that the expensive Bregotten is replaced with table margarine. Another proposal is that high school students would be allowed to settle for water instead of milk or soft drinks for lunch, something Eskilstuna-Kuriren was the first to report on.
– It does not affect the quality and it does not affect the nutritional content of the food, says Jari Puustinen (M), municipal councilor and chairman of the service committee, of which the meal business is a part, and continues:
– Hardly any milk is drunk at the high school. More milk is thrown away than is drunk.
Mixed reactions from students and guardians
If all these measures were introduced, the municipality would save around SEK 600,000 per year, according to Jari Puustinen (M). He is clear that it has been discussed with the activities and always with what is believed to be best for the students in mind. Nevertheless, he believes that the proposal has been received with mixed reactions from students and guardians.
– You can see on social media that it engages. It’s very mixed, but many people react to replacing Bregott with Lätta. I have respect for that, says Jari Puustinen (M).
At the same time, the service board is looking at more measures. Among other things, to centralize bread baking in the schools to bring down the cost and at the same time offer more schools soft bread for meals. No savings are currently being made in care for the elderly.
Is it right to save in – can’t you save somewhere else instead?
– We have nowhere else to take the money from. Already today we cannot afford to make all the investments we would need to make in teaching materials and technical equipment, Johan Ahlqvist, principal at S:t Eskil’s high school.
– We would need to have more people in student health, more people standing in the classrooms and teaching and if the alternative is that it is the food we have to save on, then so be it. I can’t afford to spend more money on food than we do today. What I have to decide is whether I can afford to have support for the students and learning materials versus the food.