Actor Dame Emma Thompson, chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, and multi-Bafta-winning animators are supporting food campaigners in a fresh drive to improve school food this year, particularly in secondary education. This is encapsulated in a newly launched film, entitled “The Lunch They Deserve”, highlighting the issues.
With the cost of living fuelled by rising fixed costs including energy and housing, households with children have been cutting back on their biggest variable cost, which is weekly groceries. This comes at a time when food inflation is rising again, unexpectedly growing to 4.5%.
A lack of affordability when it comes to nutritious food, means school meals are crucial to the 4.5 million children growing up in poverty across the UK. For many of these young people a healthy diet is unobtainable. Overall, fewer than 10 per cent of British teenagers get enough fruit and veg. Therefore, access to a hot, nutritious meal, rich in wholefoods and fibre in an educational setting is vital.
“We’ve got millions in poverty, a childhood obesity epidemic and a situation where dental decay is the biggest cause of hospital admissions for children. At the same time, young peoples’ diets across all income groups are too high in fat, sugar, and salt,” explains Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation, the organisation behind the campaign.
She continues: “The government now has a golden opportunity to make a real difference and tackle these chronic challenges by transforming school meals and taking the issue seriously. It is also important for children to have a better relationship with food, and for all of us to promote a better food culture here in the UK especially in schools.”
From September this year the government has said it is extending its free school meal programme to all children from households that receive universal credit. This will means an extra 500,000 young people will be eligible.
The government has also committed to refresh out-of-date school food standards, since they do not take into account recent nutritional recommendations. Food campaigners are also trying to hold Labour to account after it pledged to create the healthiest generation ever, two years ago. However, there are concerns that this extended offering will not actually be accompanied by better meals in schools.
“There is no cohesive monitoring and governance system for school meals. It has not been a priority for government and this needs to change. We must hold schools, academies, caterers and procurement departments to account. One option is to ask Ofsted – the schools’ inspectorate – to monitor school food standards. Currently they aren’t doing this. Then there is the Food Standards Agency which could also do more,” expresses Brinsden.
She adds: “There are particular challenges with popular ‘grab and go’ menus at secondary schools, think paninis and snack foods, which aren’t very nutritious, with little in the way of fruit and veg. These options aren’t captured by the current school food standards. This needs to change along with updates on fibre, sugar and salt intake recommendations, as well as guidance on desserts or puddings in primary schools. We certainly need to close the loopholes that allow junk food and ultra-processed into schools.”
The video aims to start a conversation on these issues. Young food ambassadors helped create the film with animators The Tin Bear Project, with narration from Dame Emma Thompson and young people from across the country who have experienced food insecurity.
The film stresses that this is very much an issue of modern times created by a dysfunctional food environment that many children in Britain are now exposed to.
“We still have a system where some children eat well at school and others don’t. That’s outrageous. School meals are the UK’s biggest and most important restaurant chain, and it’s failing too many of its customers. It’s long past time for government to properly update 20-year-old standards and actually enforce them,” concludes Jamie Oliver, chef and school food campaigner.
Stills taken from “The Lunch They Deserve”, by The Tin Bear Project, commissioned by The Food Foundation.
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