School Dinners

Early in May 2007, Socialist Party members from UNISON and NUT branches in Waltham Forest discovered that the Council planned to hand the responsibility for school meals catering over to the individual schools in the Borough, to be managed by headteachers and governors. A campaign was immediately launched.

Walthamstow Socialist Party campaigned vigorously on the issue of the loss of a fully financed, borough-wide school meals service. Members of our Party from UNISON (Nancy Taaffe), the NUT (Linda Taaffe) and the TGWU (Kevin Parslow) led the fightback, along with school meals staff and teachers.

Local Socialist Party branch members gave their time and skills to make a speedy response possible - writing leaflets, petitions and press releases, assisting with leafleting schools where school meals staff or teachers were refused permission, making placards, and setting up the rally and speakers platforms at the start of the 'pots and pans' demo.