Wakefield Council has become the second local authority to use social networking site Twitter to publish its primary school menus.
The move, which follows a trial currently run by Somerset County Council, sees Wakefield’s Kingswood Catering tweet its menus for parents every day.
Parents who subscribed to the service will receive a tweet each morning showing what’s on the primary menu. The feed will also be used to update parents on special theme days and taster sessions.
It will also update parents on how to apply for free school meals, which research found one in five eligible families across the country missed out on.
Cathy Courts, of website Netmums, welcomed the trial.
“Our recent school food survey found that one of the biggest concerns that parents have around school meals is that they don’t know what their child is eating,” she said.
“Getting a menu every day will put parents in much better control of their child’s diet. This is a clever use of a new technology, which parents are increasingly using not just to socialise, but to get important information too.”
Chris Wainwright of the School Food Trust said: “With this trial, parents will be able to ask what children thought about the food on offer, and which lunch option they chose. It gives parents the information they need to start discussions about healthy food.”
“We would also encourage parents who don’t currently choose school meals for their children to sign up, look at a few sample menus, so they can see what they’re missing and make a really informed choice.”
The Twitter trial is part of a raft of initiatives from marketing support to improving kitchen efficiencies that the Trust is piloting to support Local Authorities in increasing take up of school meals. Results of the trial will be made available online.
Parents who would like to sign up for the daily menu tweets will need to sign up for a free Twitter account (if they don’t have one already) and start following www.twitter.com/Wakefieldlunch.
Schoolchildren spend £646m on junk food breakfasts, finds report >>
One in five families miss out on free school lunches >>
Somerset parents can now use Twitter to monitor children’s school dinners >>
By Janie Stamford
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