School menus are set to change in Glasgow to serve more bean dishes to children.

Meal options in secondary schools will change in August and in primaries in April next year to “pack more beans” in, a council meeting heard last week.

Plans are underway to encourage more kids to eat beans and pulses as part of a “healthy, planet friendly diet” according to a city wide campaign to boost the food source.

Beans are seen as an alternative to meat as well as a “good source of plant based protein”.

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Glasgow city council education convenor Christina Cannon said: “Food for Life Scotland and the council are partnering to get more beans into school meals.

“To this end the council’s catering and facilities management team has been working with Soil Association’s Food for Life Served Here team to develop a new bean filled menu for school children.”

The SNP councillor added: “The overall aim is to create simple recipes that will feature on secondary menus launching in August 2024 and on primary menus in April 2025.”

A training session took place at Notre Dame Secondary School in April on sustainable food focusing on seasonality and beans hosted by Food For Life and the council’s catering team.

Councillor Cannon revealed the menu overhaul  in response to a question from Scottish Greens city councillor Seonad Hoy who asked how the “council is supporting Glasgow Community Food Network’s and Glasgow Food Policy Partnerships Full of Beans campaign and how this will impact on procurement and provision of school meals”.

Explaining more about the campaign, councillor Cannon said: “The Full of Beans campaign is a collaboration between the Glasgow Food Policy Partnership, Glasgow Community Food Network and the Climate Action Team.

“The work of the Glasgow Food Policy Partnership is supported by the council across a number of services.”

Praising the boost for beans, councillor Hoy said: ” it is really heartening to see this work taking place.”

She asked how local growers are being supported to enable them to supply beans for school meals and local businesses and whether the cost benefits of putting more beans on the menu is understood.

Councillor Cannon said she will find out more information on any support for local growers and will check if more training would be scheduled for staff and young people – to increase awareness of the benefits of putting more beans on the table.