King Solomon High School in Redbridge is looking to switch to a mainly dairy menu in an attempt to provide affordable lunches.

Although it has its own kitchen, it has been affected by the catering problems that have left other Jewish schools in the capital struggling to find viable options to feed pupils.

The situation, said KS headteacher Hannele Reece, had been “horrendous, taking up most of my time and energy”.

King Solomon had been one of the schools buying in kosher meals from a company called Signature Dining, which in March handed over the contract to London Kosher Dining. When the latter company stopped trading in May, many Jewish schools had to scrabble to come up with alternatives.

Ms Reece said that at the time of the change in suppliers, she had considered London Kosher Dining unsuitable and King Solomon decided to cater in-house.

Around a quarter of its pupils are eligible for free school meals and it also provides meals to its sister primary, Wohl Ilford (IJPS). All pupils in state primaries from reception to year 2 are entitled to free meals.

“Our first priority was simply to ensure that all our students and all IJPS’s students were fed however it soon became clear that the costs were unsustainable,” she said. “We worked out we were losing 25p a meal for every meal we served IJPS and making similar losses on our own provision for students in receipt of free school meals.

“We receive £2:43 [from the government] for every free school meal. The cost of the ingredients required to give students the beef bolognaise meal is currently £2:70, the roast turkey and gravy meal cost us £2:58 and the very popular burger and chips on a Friday £2:73.”

The school worked out it was losing £250 a week to subsidise meals.

Other schools have been quoted prices by caterers of up to £5.50 for a hot kosher meal.

“Within the regulations for school food, we have moved to a predominately vegetarian menu, and I am looking in detail at the costs of moving to a dairy-only menu as I believe this will offer us the chance to provide our students with a greater choice at a cost that we can afford,” Ms Reece said.  

“I hope to do this during the summer to ensure my successor can think about more than just catering! We converted our sixthform cafe to dairy-only over the half term break and I hope this will help considerably.”