“This is total madness.” There are clear words with which a Grafingen mother describes the procedure in the cafeteria, which will apply from the coming school year. There is then freshly prepared food from a local caterer with regional goods, but at 4.40 euros per meal, a good euro more expensive than before and above all: Can no longer be canceled on the same day – something that was used in the event of illness. In future, students can only be canceled for the upcoming week by Thursday at the latest. And to the annoyance of some parents.
At the Grafinger cafeteria, children and young people on the full-day trains from elementary and middle school as well as the Comenius school can have lunch, around 130 meals are produced in this way. Meals are offered four days a week, Monday through Thursday. Even changing the caterer will not change that. It will no longer be the case in the future that you can sign off your child for lunch on the same day in the morning.
“Our new caterer buys regionally, with quality and prepares the food fresh,” explains Grafings First Mayor Christian Bauer (CSU). “He has to place a very precise order quantity, otherwise he would be stuck with his goods.” Therefore, the now unusually long lead time for meal registrations is necessary for the Grafingen parents. The fact that it was previously possible to do otherwise was due to the frozen food. It didn’t matter whether a dish was more or less thawed – the caterer could continue to use the food without any problems.
There have often been complaints from parents about frozen food, says Bauer: the size of the meals, the taste, the quality in general. The town hall wanted to respond to this with a new caterer. But fresh and regional costs, nobody can get that for two euros. “I can understand that it is a bit annoying for the parents,” said Bauer. “But with the new price, we are on average compared to other municipalities and the fact that you cannot cancel the meal at short notice has long been standard there.”
There is also understanding on the other side, at least in part. The fact that nobody wants to throw food away is praiseworthy, of course, “but it was also possible to cancel in the morning,” says the mother of an affected Grafingen schoolchild, who does not want to see her name in the newspaper. “I can’t plan a week in advance if my child will be sick.” And if the worst comes to the worst, she will certainly not go to the cafeteria and pick up the ordered food in a storage box while her sick child is at home alone – the town hall administration offers this option. The consequence: you would pay for nothing. “I’m a single parent and don’t want to give away almost five euros when my child is at home.” Especially in Corona times, it could happen that the children have to be in quarantine because of contact. Several times. A lot of money could come together.
“I think that in the worst case four days, which we are talking about here, have to be tolerated,” said Mayor Bauer. Natalie Sauter, Chairwoman of the Parents’ Council at Grafinger Elementary School, sees it similarly. “There is always some disadvantage.” Last winter, the parents’ councils of all three schools obtained requests for a new caterer in the affected classes. Most of the feedback had highlighted the points fresh and regional.
The possibility of spontaneous cancellation was not mentioned, but neither was it explicitly asked for. What happened to the statements that they passed on to the town hall, there was no feedback to the school management or the parents’ council – something that they would have welcomed. Nevertheless, she cannot understand why there is now an outcry among some of the parents.
And now? What is certain is that the new caterer and with it the changed ordering procedure will come. Sauter speaks out in favor of patience: “We haven’t even eaten a piece of the food from the new provider and there is already such an uproar,” she says. “We won’t get any further like this.”