Parents express disgust at 'inedible' school dinners at Carmarthenshire secondary school
Parents have expressed disgust on social media over the “inedible” school dinners they say are being served to their children at a Carmarthenshire secondary school.
Ysgol Dyffryn Taf, in Whitland, has come in for criticism after images of the food were shared on social media.
One person labelled the food "shocking" while another said the school “should be ashamed of themselves for serving that to children”.
The initial post, which has been shared and commented on hundreds of times, led other parents to share pictures of meals they said their children had also bought at the school.
One parent said: “My kids said they were bad but I didn’t think it was this bad”.
Another claimed: “[My son] did mention the food was awful but I never imagined it was this bad! Absolutely vile".
Shelley Webb, who shared the original post, said: “My daughter has complained about the quality of the food and the size of the portions before but I just thought she was moaning about school dinners in general like a lot of kids do.
"But she showed me some of the pictures and then I believed her! The portion sizes aren’t big enough to feed a four-year-old, never mind teenagers. And my daughter will sometimes just have a snack in school or something like a cookie for lunch; I didn’t know why, but now I do now.”
Shelley is now calling on the local authority to take action to improve the quality of food being served to pupils.
“There needs to be a bit of value for money,” she said.
“£2.60 for what my daughter gets is not enough to eat, even if the food was nice - which it isn’t, it’s inedible, I believe. We as parents wouldn’t mind spending money on school dinners if they were nice and provided a good meal.
"I believe the quality of food is awful and the kids are either not eating or just eating a little bit and then coming home hungry. It’s horrendous and it's something that needs to be addressed.”
Carmarthenshire Council, the local authority responsible for education and school dinners at Ysgol Dyffryn Taf, has said it is looking into the matter urgently.
The council's director of education and children’s services, Gareth Morgans, said: “We are investigating these concerns as a matter of urgency now that it has been brought to our attention and would like to reassure parents that arrangements are in place to address thissituation.
"If parents/guardians or pupils have any concerns about the standard of food in Carmarthenshire schools, we would encourage them to contact schoolmeals@carmarthenshire.gov.uk.”