Council chiefs in Aberdeen are considering buying their own burger vans for schools – to promote healthy eating.
The local authority has begun a market inquiry looking at the possibility of buying catering vehicles to sell “nutritious” food in secondary school grounds.
The council would own the vehicles and could use them for other events.
A notice on the Public Contracts Scotland website seeks information from potential suppliers, and states: “The purpose of this request for information is to solicit views from the market on their ability to supply or convert catering vehicles or trailers for use at secondary schools and other locations, and to understand the approximate costs associated with this.”
If the authority decides to proceed the plans, they visualise investigating and awarding a contract next April.
Last night finance convener Willie Young said the council was taking inspiration from other authorities across the country who have introduced similar vans, such as in Renfrewshire.
He added the vans could give pupils “more choice” when it came to where and what they ate for lunch.
He said: “There are school canteens but a lot of the pupils decide to eat elsewhere – going to shops and the like.
“It’s about choice, we’re trying to look at if this idea could be feasible to introduce but haven’t made any commitments yet.
“The main thing is to help get our kids eating nutritious food and we’re open to ideas of how to do this.”
An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman stressed no firm decisions had been made.
She said: “This is not a tendering exercise. It is a market inquiry – a request for information – to locate interested suppliers, and assess the likely costs of purchasing or converting vehicles such as trailers, or mobile vans from which the school catering service at school sites in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire would sell and serve food.
“This is an approach already taken by a number of other councils to offer children an additional nutritionally compliant choice which could also help us to maximise income to the school meals service.
“No decisions have been made to proceed down this route.”