Posted on: Thursday 21 December 2023
If you're cooking Christmas lunch this year, spare a thought for Torfaen Council's schools catering service which has served up more than 7,000 turkey dinners this month!
The team has prepared thousands of Christmas dinners, with all the trimmings and dessert, for staff and pupils at all 26 primary schools in the borough and three secondary schools.
Christmas dinner is the catering service's most popular meal, but even more lunches have been dished up this year following the roll out of universal free school meals for all primary school year groups.
Ollie, who is in Year 4 at Garnteg Primary School, said: “My dinner was lush, I loved the sprouts and the little sausages.”
Alexander, who is in Year 1 Llanyrafon Primary School, added: “I loved my Christmas dinner but I especially liked having the ice cream for dessert.”
Tracy James, Torfaen Catering Service Senior Operations Manager, said: "This has been an exceptionally busy year for the catering team with the roll out of free school meals for all primary pupils, but the staff still managed to pull out all the stops to provide thousands of delicious Christmas dinners.
"They also provided more than 270 dinners for pupils with special dietary requirements to make sure everyone could enjoy the festive fun.
"I'd like to thank our catering teams and school staff who support children during lunchtimes and help them eat their food."
Councillor Richard Clark, Executive Member for Children, Families and Education, added: "I would like to thank our award-winning catering service for their fantastic work in our schools this month - and all year round."