Two secret plans to change school menus

TWO secret decisions to first serve then stop serving halal meat in thousands of Camden school dinners have come under fire from a pair of leading national Muslim organisations.
The criticism comes after the New Journal last week revealed that halal meat was routinely and secretly served to pupils at more than 50 schools across the borough.
Its removal from menus at all but two schools last July, after a mother at Eleanor Palmer School discovered it and complained to the Town Hall that halal slaughter was cruel, was also hushed up.
Teachers, governors, parents, pupils and councillors were all deliberately kept in the dark about both the decision to carry on serving halal meat and then the decision to remove it.
Halal slaughter in its most orthodox form requires animals to have their throats cut without first being stunned, although some Muslims now back the partial pre-stunning process favoured by Camden’s suppliers.
Emails obtained by the New Journal show that Camden Council contracts manager Ian Patterson initially planned to go on serving halal meat despite the mother’s complaint last summer because catering contractor Scolarest claimed it could not easily find a non-halal supplier for the same price as halal.
Recommending secretly carrying on with halal meat to acting education director Yvette Stanley, he warned: “I am concerned that this could become another sensitive story.”
And writing to education supremo Cllr Nick Smith, he said: “Although this is in some ways an operational issue, you will appreciate that it has the capacity to be very sensitive and controversial.”
Cllr Smith has refused to clarify whether it was he or his officials who took the final decision to remove halal meat last July, although Mr Patterson wrote to ask him: “could you let me know if you are happy with this position we have taken or if you would prefer another approach?”
Cllr Smith would not take calls yesterday, referring them to a press official who said only: “I’m not getting into who made the decision; it was a Camden Council decision.”
The council’s handling of the situation – which last week saw councillors debating the future of halal school food without knowing that halal meat had been served as standard until last year – has come under fire from both the Muslim Association of Britain and the Halal Food Authority.
MAB spokesman Ihtisham Hibatullah said: “I am alarmed that Camden Council have taken such actions to exclude the rights of a minority community after it has been proven that it is possible to provide halal food to all their schools.”
“There are a substantial number of Muslims in Camden and they should have been involved in the decision.”
And Masood Khawaja, president of the HFA, said: “Parents should have been told what their children were eating; both Muslims when halal food was removed and white parents when it was introduced, but it is particularly important for Muslims to be able to eat halal meat.”
A Camden Council press official said: “We will be improving halal provision and will be proactively consulting schools and local communities over the next few months to find out how school meals can better serve the faith needs of our diverse communities.
“Our intention is to improve access to halal meals and products to better cater for the needs of Muslim pupils.”
Tower Hamlets and Newham borough councils both supply halal food to all children who want it and Bradford, the first authority in the country to offer halal meat in 1983, only uses meat which has not been stunned in any way.