School children have healthier appetites

Released 08/07/2010

New stats contradict health secretary’s criticism of Jamie Oliver

The number of pupils eating healthy food at school has seen the biggest year-on-year percentage point increase since the height of the school meals revolution, despite Health Secretary Andrew Lansley saying otherwise.

Lansley told the British Medical Association that despite Jamie Oliver's efforts, fewer children were actually eating healthier meals.

"Jamie Oliver, quite rightly, was talking about trying to improve the diet of children in schools and improving school meals, but the net effect was the number of children eating school meals in many of these places didn't go up, it went down," he said at the BMA's annual conference earlier this month.

However, the annual survey of school lunch take up for the 2009-10 year, carried out by the School Food Trust and the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), shows that take up of healthy school lunches has increased in both primary and secondary schools.

The official statistics show that, in primary schools, the proportion of children eating a school lunch rose from 39.3% in 2008-09 to 41.4% in 2009-10, a 2.1 percentage point increase. Secondary schools saw a 0.8 percentage point rise from 35% in 2008-09 to 35.8% in 2009-10.

It means that an extra 320,980 pupils are now eating a healthy lunch every day at school, compared with the 2008-09 year.

The School Food Trust's Chair, Rob Rees, said: "The number of children eating school meals had been on a downward spiral for many years when Jamie Oliver brought the issue into the nation's living room, leading to even more children and parents turning their backs on canteens. Now, following the introduction of national standards for meals and the hard work to improve the dining room experience for children, this is being reversed - disproving the myth that children simply don't want to eat healthy food."

"To say school dinners hasn't worked is not just inaccurate, but is also an insult to the hard work of hundreds of thousands of dinner ladies, teachers, head teachers and parent helpers who strive to feed school kids a nutritious, hot meal for 190 days of the year," said Oliver in his response to Lansley's comments.

Rees warned there was still more work to do: "The number of children eating school meals is still in the minority so the School Food Trust, schools, caterers, local authorities and cooks still have a huge amount to do before we can say the school meals revolution is complete.

"That's why our work continues to help schools, local authorities, cooks and caterers right across the country find solutions that work for them to create sustainable school food services for the future."

Beverley Baker, LACA Chair, agreed: "This is a remarkable achievement by everyone involved in the provision of school food. However, the figures show that although more children are having a school meal every day than last year, this is still less than half of the school population. In order to maintain take up, or increase further the number of children and young people having a school meal, it is essential that we continue to give maximum support to the service so that we can sustain quality and ensure that prices remain affordable for parents.

"In a time of economic uncertainty and tightening of belts, it is even more important for children and young people to have school meals. At a time when discretionary spending for parents is under pressure, school meals represent better value for money than a packed lunch when you consider the higher nutritional content and greater contribution they can make to children's diets and lifestyles as well as academic and physical achievement."

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