The number of children eating healthy school meals in England has climbed for the third year in a row – with more than three million children now having a school lunch every day.
New figures, published this morning by the School Food Trust and LACA, show that an average of 44.1 per cent of children in primary schools and 37.6 per cent of pupils in secondary school opted for school meals in the 2010-11 year, up from 41.4 and 35.8 per cent respectively in the previous year.
It means that:
- Around 173,000 more children had healthy school meals last year, compared with around 100,000 extra children in 2009-10
- More than three million children now eat a school meal every day
- The equivalent of almost 590 million healthy school lunches were served up last year
- The number of children taking both paid-for and free school meals in the 2010-11 year increased
- Figures in primary schools have now notched up a rise of almost 5 percentage points over just three years, more than compensating for the fall in take up seen after Jamie Oliver’s original campaign.
The School Food Trust’s Chairman, Rob Rees, said: “There’s no better review for any restaurant than to see the number of returning customers going up each year – and that’s exactly what’s happening here, thanks to the hard work of cooks and catering teams, lunchtime supervisors, schools and councils.
“But if we’re going to keep school meal numbers rising, we have to keep healthy school meals affordable. That means helping schools to grow their market, to get the best deals for their food supplies and services, to protect their kitchens and dining rooms and to operate their catering services efficiently. With more children registering for free school meals, we’ve also got to make sure that we continue to encourage more children to take them up.
“At a time when funding is so tight everywhere, good school food is a solid investment in children’s learning and health. That’s why we’re setting out six staples of good food at school that will keep these figures rising: giving children enough time for lunch, decent dining rooms, freshly cooked food, affordable prices, stay on site policies and cooking in the curriculum.”
Crucially, despite the un-ringfencing of Government funding for school food from April 2011, the research also shows encouraging signs that schools are pledging to continue investing the money in good food at school. Two thirds of councils taking part in the survey (65%) indicated that their catering services would continue to receive School Lunch Grant funding, with fewer than one in five indicating otherwise.
The average meal price across all schools was £1.93, a rise of 5p – less than 3% and below the current rate of food inflation – on the previous year.
Sandra Russell, LACA Chair, said: “We are pleased to see an increase in both primary and secondary school meal numbers, particularly at a time when parents are having to watch every penny. This continuing increase in uptake reflects the hard work of our members at the front line of the school meals service and is a tribute to their considerable commitment. The messages about the important contribution school meals can make to a child’s learning ability and physical performance are, hopefully, getting through to parents and head teachers. However, we must continue to persuade head teachers about the benefits of adopting a whole school approach to healthy eating.
“Whilst the results of the survey indicate a positive trend, we must continue to encourage children and young people to make wise food choices. Going forward, it is absolutely critical that at this time of public sector austerity measures, we do all we can to ensure the now un-ring-fenced School Lunch Grant continues to be channelled towards catering and that school meals remain high quality, nutritious and above all, as affordable as possible for parents”.
School Food Trust Chairman Rob Rees will meet catering staff and join pupils for lunch at Park Primary school in Newham (Mathews Park Avenue, London E15 4AE) today from 11.40am. Interviews can be arranged by calling Claire Rick in the Trust’s press office on 0114 274 2323, or by emailing media.enquiries@sft.gsi.gov.uk
For LACA interviews/comment, contact Hazel Green, LACA Press Office on 07950 007169 or HaGreen7@aol.com
Ends
Notes to editors:
- Data on the annual take up of school lunches in England is collected via the School Food Trust and LACA joint annual survey of Local Authorities (LAs). For 2010-11, 129 local authorities responded to the survey, with 128 providing ‘usable’ data for primary schools and 109 for secondary schools. The survey also collects information on a range of other school food issues.
- Take up is the percentage of pupils having a school lunch. It relates to the total number of pupils on roll, and is measured over a defined period which could be a day, week, half-term, term or year. It can be divided into paid and free school meal take up. Today’s national release refers specifically to the national average percentage of pupils having a school lunch each day. There is a standard method for calculating this, which relates the number of meals (or meal equivalents in secondary schools) to the total roll (including any pupils absent from school), and covers all trading days (days on which a meal service is provided) in the financial year (1st April to 31st March).
2008-09 was the first year that all local authorities collected data on take up of school meals using a standard method. As a result, data collected before this year cannot be directly compared with data collected afterwards.
School meal transformation timeline:
September 2006: New interim food-based lunch standards come into force – including banning junk food;
September 2007: Standards for vending machines, breakfast clubs and tuck shops come into force;
September 2008: Final food and nutrient-based lunch standards (replacing interim standards) came into force in primary schools;
September 2009: Final food and nutrient-based lunch standards come into force for secondary and special schools.
