Councils urge more children to eat school meals

Following the launch of the School Food Plan in 2013, the Children’s Food Trust is working with local authorities including South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire councils to help schools encourage junior and secondary pupils to opt for lunches in the canteen. The scheme, which sits alongside the Government's funding of free school meals for infants, is designed to help junior and secondary schools get more children choosing the school dining room at lunchtime.

The Trust is giving specialist training to local authority and academy trust teams so they can help schools get more children opting for school meals, focusing on the small things which can make a big difference. The charity is also offering these schools ready-made marketing programmes to get pupils excited about school meals, along with site visits and one-to-one support on operational issues.

Support is available in other regions from the Food For Life Partnership – led by the Soil Association - and the Design and Technology Association. As Ofsted announces that healthy eating will be part of school inspections from September 2015, all three organisations are urging schools not to miss out on a share of more than one million pounds worth of training, support and materials.

Linda Cregan, Chief Executive Officer of the Children’s Food Trust said: “Rightly, there’s been a heavy focus on supporting infant schools to make sure they were ready to deliver free school meals for all their pupils, but if we want that legacy to last throughout children’s school years, we have to make sure help gets to other schools, too. And with Ofsted’s inspection framework including such an emphasis on food from September this year, there’s an even bigger incentive for schools to get this right. That’s why we’re so delighted to welcome these local authorities on board and why we’re keen to talk to more local authorities and schools in these regions to make sure they’re getting a share of this invaluable support.”